THE   CHRISTIAN    LIFE 

IN   THE 

MODERN  WORLD 


The  Sixth  Series  of  John  Calvin  McNair  Lectures 

AT  the  University  of  North  Carolina 

IN  1913 

expanded  and  revised 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK   •   BOSTON  •    CHICAGO   •    DALLAS 
ATLANTA  •   SAN  FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON  •   BOMBAY  •    CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


THE  CHRISTIAN   LIFE 

IN   THE 

MODERN  WORLD 


L^ 


BY 


FRANCIS   GREENWOOD   PEABODY 

plummer  professor  of  christlzf  morals 
(emeritus)  in  harvard  university 


THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 
1914 

AB  rights  reterved 


^^ 


Copyright,  1914, 
By  the  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electtotyped.    Published  October,  1914. 


KadsooH  9rt8B 

J.  8.  Gushing  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith  Oo. 

Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


TO  G.  W.  P.^ 

IN   VIGILS   PROSTRATE  AND    WITH   FASTINGS   FAINT, 
HER   VISIONS   OF  THE   CHRIST   SUSTAINED   THE  SAINT, 
AND   NO   RUDE   NOISE   OF   WORLDLY   WANT  OR  CARE 
DISTURBED   THE   STILLNESS   OF  THE  CONVENT'S  PRAYER. 
"  WHERE,    LORD,"  ONE  ASKED,    "  MAY  THEY  WHO    LOVE 

THEE    MOST 
BEHOLD   THY   COUNTENANCE  ERE  THEY   DEPART  ?  " 
"  SEEK    ME,"   THE   SAVIOUR  ANSWERED,    "  IN   THE   HOST 
OR   ON   THE  ALTAR   OF   SAINT  GERTRUDE'S   HEART." 

NO    MYSTIC   VOICES   FROM   THE   HEAVENS   ABOVE 
NOW   SATISFY   THE   SOULS   WHICH   CHRIST   CONFESS; 
THEIR   HEAVENLY   VISION   IS    IN   WORKS   OF   LOVE, 
A   NEW   AGE   SUMMONS   TO   NEW   SAINTLINESS. 
BEFORE  TH*   UNCLOISTERED   SHRINE   OF   HUMAN   NEEDS 
AND   ALL   UNCONSCIOUS   OF   THE   WORTH   OR   PRICE, 
THEY   LAY   THEIR   FRAGRANT   GIFTS   OF   GRACIOUS   DEEDS 
UPON   THE   ALTAR   OF   SELF-SACRIFICE. 

1  Saint  Gertrude  of  Eisleben  (1256-1302)  passed  her  entire 
life  from  five  years  of  age  in  a  convent,  where  she  was  permitted 
to  see  many  visions  of  the  Saviour.  When  another  suppliant 
asked  where  Christ  might  be  foimd,  the  Saviour  answered: 
"  Either  on  the  altar  or  in  the  heart  of  Gertrude."  (Man  moge 
ihn  entweder  im  Tabemakel  oder  im  Herzen  Gertrud's  suchen.) 
The  "Revelations"  of  Saint  Gertrude  {Insinuationum  divina 
fietatis  exercitia)  were  published  in  many  editions  during  the 
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries. 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Arciiive 

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CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I 

PAGE 

The  Practicability  of  the  Christian  Life  .        .        i 

CHAPTER  II 
The  Christian  Life  and  the  Modern  Family      .      37 

CHAPTER  III 

The  Christian  Life  and  the  Modern   Business 

World 76 

CHAPTER  IV 
The  Christian  Life  and  the  Making  of  Money  .     106 

CHAPTER  V 
The  Christian  Life  and  the  Uses  of  Money       .    135 

CHAPTER  VI 
The  Christian  Life  and  the  Modern  State        .     161 

CHAPTER  VII 
The  Christian  Life  and  the  Christian  Church  .    195 

INDEX 229 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE 

MODERN  WORLD 

I 

THE   PRACTICABILITY   OF   THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

In  one  of  the  most  vigorous  as  well  as  the  short- 
est Letters  of  the  New  Testament,  the  Apostle, 
writing  to  Titus,  his  "own  son  after  the  common 
faith,"  reenforces  his  general  doctrine  of  Christian 
ethics  by  a  special  application  to  the  circumstances 
in  which  Titus  finds  himself  at  Crete.  The  Chris- 
tian life,  the  Apostle  says,  is  practicable  even  there. 
The  Cretans,  among  whom  Titus  had  been  left 
"to  set  in  order  the  things  that  are  wanting," 
were,  it  was  true,  "liars,  beasts,  and  gluttons." 
"This  witness,"  the  writer  agrees,  "is  true";  but 
this  truth  is  precisely  what  gives  an  opportunity 
for  Titus  to  teach  the  Cretans  a  "healthy"  doc- 
trine of  chastity,  discretion,  and  gravity.  "The 
grace  of  God  that  bringeth  salvation  hath  ap- 
peared to  all  men."  Crete  was  a  good  place 
for  a  Christian  to  "adorn  the  doctrine  of  God." 
"  For  this  cause  left  I  thee  in  Crete."  The  problem 
of  the  Christian  life  was  not  to  run  away  from  a  bad 
place,  but  to  serve  it  and  save  it.    The  purpose  of 


2      THE   C3IRISTIAN   LIFE   IN   THE   MODERN   WORLD 

God  was  to  train  one  to  live  "soberly,  righteously, 
and  godly,"  not  in  a  world  of  his  own  choosing,  but 
"in  this  present  world."  ^  Soberly  as  concerns  one's 
self,  righteously  as  concerns  one's  neighbor,  piously 
as  concerns  one's  God,  —  these  three  principles 
made,  according  to  the  Apostle,  a  practicable  rule 
of  conduct  for  a  young  man  of  the  j&rst  century  in 
a  vicious  and  pleasure-loving  world  .^ 

But  could  a  Christian  teacher  speak  so  confi- 
dently now  ?  Is  the  Christian  life  practicable  in 
this  present  world?  Is  it  possible  to  live  in  the 
world  as  it  now  is,  accepting  its  methods,  partici- 
pating in  its  business,  involved  in  its  social,  eco- 
nomic, and  political  machinery,  and  at  the  same 
time  to  lead  a  sober,  righteous,  and  godly  life,  fit 
to  adorn  the  doctrine  of  God?  Under  what  con- 
ditions can  the  ideals  of  the  Christian  rehgion  sur- 
vive? Amid  the  licentiousness  and  commercial- 
ism of  modern  society  can  a  domestic  Ufe  be  so 
maintained  that  it  may  be  with  reasonable  accuracy 
described  as  a  Christian  family  ?  Amid  the  brutal 
competitions  of  modem  industry  can  trade  be 
administered  and  profit  be  made  in  ways  which 
are  consistent  with  Christian  discipleship  ?    Amid 

*  Titus  I,  4;  II,  12;  "  iraidivova-a  ijudi "  (Zuchtigt  uns; 
Luther).  "  Die  Gnade  Gottes  hat  einen  padagogischen  Zweck," 
Heydenbach,  in  Meyer,  "Kommentar  uber  das  N.T.";  1866, 
lite  Abth.  s.  339. 

*  Bernard,  Serm.  XI :  "  Sobrie  erga  nos,  juste  erga  proximum, 
pie  erga  Deum  " ;  cited  in  the  detailed  note  of  Alford, "  The  Greek 
Testament,"  etc.,  1865. 


THE  PRACTICABILITY   OF   THE   CHRISTIAN   LIFE       3 

the  plottings  of  national  politics  and  the  colli- 
sions of  international  interests  can  we  fairly  speak 
of  a  Christian  civilization  ?  And  —  to  ask  an 
even  more  searching  question  —  does  the  Chris- 
tian Church  itself,  in  its  present  condition  of  con- 
ventional conformity  and  ecclesiastical  limitation, 
provide  a  congenial  environment  for  the  practice  of 
that  simphcity  which  is  "  toward  Christ "  ?  On 
what  terms  is  it  possible  to  Uve  a  Christian  life  in 
a  modern  world?  Must  not  one  take  his  choice 
between  the  two?  Is  the  Christian  reUgion  a 
practicable  faith  among  the  inevitable  conditions 
of  modem  efficiency  and  happiness;  or  is  it  the 
survival  of  an  idealism  which,  however  beautiful 
it  may  once  have  been,  has  become  impracticable 
to-day  ? 

These  questions  have  created  in  many  thoughtful 
minds  a  profound  sense  of  perplexity,  and  even  of 
alarm.  The  world  which  confronts  a  modern  man 
is  very  different  from  the  provincial  and  primitive 
environment  of  the  New  Testament  teaching; 
but  even  though  this  new  world  is  less  Ukely  than 
that  of  Crete  to  produce  "liars,  beasts,  and  glut- 
tons," it  seems  quite  as  hard  to  adjust  to  the 
maxims  of  the  Christian  Gospel.  A  modem  man, 
for  example,  finds  himself  compelled  by  circum- 
stances to  devote  two-thirds  of  his  waking  hours 
to  the  making  of  his  hving  and  the  securing  of  a 
margin  of  income,  but  when  he  turns,  in  some 
hastily  snatched  interval,  to  the  New  Testament, 


4      THE  CHRISTIAN   LIFE  IN  THE   MODERN   WORLD 

he  reads  the  unqualified  command  of  Jesus  Christ, 
"Lay  not  up  for  yourselves  treasures  upon  earth." 
Another  man  is  trained  in  habits  of  economy  and 
thrift,  and  is  met  by  the  peremptory  counsel: 
"SeU  that  thou  hast  and  give  to  the  poor."  A 
student  of  modem  methods  in  charity  is  taught  to 
distrust  as  a  social  menace  the  practice  of  indis- 
criminate relief,  and  then  finds  his  science  con- 
fronted by  the  saying,  "Give  to  him  that  asketh 
thee,  and  from  him  that  would  borrow  of  thee  turn 
not  thou  away."  An  unjustified  attack  is  made  on 
one's  self  or  one's  country,  and  resistance  to  it  has 
to  meet  the  words,  which  to  Tolstoi  made  the  cen- 
tral teaching  of  the  Gospel,  "Whosoever  shall 
smite  thee  on  thy  right  cheek,  turn  to  him  the  other 
also."  Must  one  not  choose  between  the  idealism 
of  the  Gospels  and  the  utilitarianism  of  modem 
Hfe  ?  Must  he  not  frankly  confess  that  the  Chris- 
tian law  of  conduct  and  the  demands  of  commer- 
cial or  poUtical  stability  "in  this  present  world" 
are  irreconcilably  opposed  to  each  other,  and  that 
under  the  circumstances  of  modem  civilization, 
which  one  can  neither  escape  nor  for  the  present 
transform,  the  Christian  character  has  become  an 
impracticable  dream  ? 

The  issue  differs  from  many  that  have  been 
regarded  as  serious  in  that  it  is  irreparable  and 
absolute.  Whether  Church  or  State  should  be  su- 
preme, whether  priest  or  preacher  should  direct, 
whether  liberty  or  conformity  should  prevail,  — 


THE   PRACTICABILITY   OF   THE   CHRISTIAN   LIFE      $ 

these  controversies  of  the  past  might  be  deter- 
mined without  a  final  catastrophe.  But  whether 
contemporary  life  and  historical  Christianity  are 
incompatible  with  each  other,  whether  the  choice 
must  be  made  between  the  ancient  faith  and 
the  modem  world,  —  that  is  a  fundamental  ques- 
tion. If  that  choice  must  be  made,  it  would 
be  made,  by  the  great  majority  of  thoughtful 
minds,  without  hesitation,  though  often  with  much 
distress.  It  might  be  hard  to  live  without  the 
comforts  and  consolations  of  Christianity,  but  it 
would  be  impossible  to  live  in  a  world  that  is  gone. 
One  might  sigh  for  a  beautiful  past,  but  he  must 
live  and  work  in  a  real,  even  though  it  be  an  ugly, 
present.  The  Christian  life  must  be  frankly  sur- 
rendered if  one  is  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  its 
demands  and  ideals  are  impracticable  in  a  modem 
world. 

This  conclusion,  which  shakes  the  very  pillars 
of  Christian  loyalty,  and  leaves  of  Christian  ethics 
nothing  more  than  a  picturesque  ruin,  overthrown 
by  the  earthquakes  of  modem  change,  is  practically 
reached  by  two  groups  of  inquirers,  who  in  other 
respects  have  nothing  in  common  and  stand  at 
opposite  poles  of  opinion  and  sympathy,  but  who 
agree  in  forcing  this  issue  between  Christian  ideal- 
ism and  contemporary  facts.  On  the  one  hand 
are  the  critics  of  Christianity  who  condemn  it  as 
incompatible  with  modem  life ;  on  the  other  hand 
are  the  apologists  for  Christianity  who  defend  it  as 


6      THE   CHRISTIAN   LIFE   IN  THE   MODERN   WORLD 

an  alternative  to  modem  life.  As  to  the  first  of 
these  conclusions,  one  has  but  to  recall  in  the  lit- 
erature and  philosophy  of  the  present  day  the  note 
of  disillusion,  or  even  condescension,  which  may 
be  frequently  heard  concerning  religion  in  general 
and  the  Christian  religion  in  particular.  "None 
of  us  are  Christians,"  a  distinguished  Eng- 
lish philosopher  has  affirmed,  "and  we  all  know, 
no  matter  what  we  say,  we  ought  not  to  be.  .  .  . 
We  have  lived  a  long  time  now  the  professors  of  a 
creed  which  no  one  can  consistently  practise  and 
which, if  practised,  would  be  as  immoral  as  unreal."  ^ 
"We  are,"  an  Oxford  tutor  has  written,  "official 
Christians  and  not  real  Christians.  .  .  .  Let  us 
have  done  with  pretence.  Let  us  cease  to  call  our- 
selves Christians  when  we  do  not  follow  Christ.  .  .  . 
The  last  sixty  years  have  witnessed  a  kind  of  col- 
lapse of  Christianity."  ^  "  It  must  be  plain,"  Profes- 
sor Rauschenbusch  remarks,  "to  any  thoughtful 
observer,  that  immense  numbers  of  men  are  turning 
away  from  traditional  religion.  .  .  .  Many  of  its 
defenders  are  querulously  lamenting  the  growth 
of  unbelief.  They  stand  on  a  narrowing  island 
amid  a  growing  flood,  saving  what  they  can  of  the 
wreckage  of  faith."  ' 

Thus,  from  many  quarters,  from  friendly,  in- 

*  F.  H.  Bradley,  International  Journal  of  Ethics,  October,  1894. 
*Garrod,  "The  Religion  of  All  Good  Men,"  1906,  pp.  154, 

IS9,  65. 

*  "Christianizing  the  Social  Order,"  191 2,  pp.  11 7-1 20. 


THE   PRACTICABILITY   OF   THE   CHRISTIAN   LIFE      7 

different,  and  hostile  critics,  comes  this  confession 
of  an  imperilled  or  a  defeated  Christianity,  "  Even 
the  unprejudiced  observer,"  Eucken  concludes,  "is 
constrained  to  admit,  that  Christianity  no  longer 
holds  its  old  position.  It  has  been  driven  from  its 
status  of  undisputed  possession  and  forced  into  an 
attitude  of  defense."^  "The  men  in  whom  the 
religious  instinct  is  strongest,"  Mr.  Lowes  Dickin- 
son affirms,  "  move  farther  and  farther  from  the 
Christian  postulates."  ^  Finally  there  is  heard  the 
bitter  protest  of  Nietzsche  against  the  decadent 
and  anaemic  ethics  of  Christian  sentimentalism : 
"  Christianity  is  the  one  great  curse,  the  one  great 
spiritual  corruption."  "It  is  our  more  strenuous 
and  instinctive  piety  which  forbids  us  to  continue 
Christians." ' 

When  one  passes  from  these  conclusions  of 
academic  minds  to  the  utterances  of  social  revo- 
lutionists, he  finds  the  same  sense  of  impractica- 
bility given  an  equally  unmeasured  expression. 
A  generation  ago  Marx  wrote:  "For  a  society 
whose  economic  relations  consist  in  the  dealing 
with  its  products  as  commodities  and  values  .  .  . 
Christianity,  with  its  cult  of  the  abstract  man, 
especially  in  its  bourgeois  development  as  Protes- 
tantism, Deism,  etc.,  is  the  most  appropriate 
form   of   religion.  .  .  .     This   religious   reflection 

1 "  Can  We  Still  Be  Christians  ?  "  tr.  1914,  p.  48. 

*" Religion:  a  Criticism  and  a  Forecast,"  1905,  p.  67. 

»  "  Sammtliche  Werke,"  1895,  VIII,  270;  XHI,  317. 


8      THE    CHRISTIAN   LITE   IN   THE   MODERN   WORLD 

of  the  real  world  will  only  then  finally  vanish 
when  the  conditions  of  practical  work-a-day  life 
establish  rational  relations  with  man  and  with 
nature,"  ^  and  Bebel,  with  still  firmer  assurance, 
taught:  "Religion  will  not  be  abolished  or  God 
dethroned.  .  .  .  Without  attack  of  force  or  sup- 
pression of  opinion  of  any  kind,  reUgion  will  of  itself 
vanish.  It  is  the  transcendental  reflection  of  the 
existing  social  order."  ^  To  the  same  purport,  in 
answer  to  an  inquiry  lately  made  concerning  the 
prospects  of  the  Christian  religion,  a  leader  of  the 
Social  Democracy  of  Holland  has  frankly  replied : 
"The  process  of  evolution  involves  the  dissolution 
of  the  religious  sentiment,"  and  a  representative  of 
the  same  party  in  Russia  has  added,  "The  progress 
of  humanity  is  the  death-sentence  of  religion."  ' 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  one  turns  from  these 
critics  of  Christianity  to  those  who  conceive  them- 
selves to  be  its  defenders,  the  same  conclusion  of 
impracticability  is  not  infrequently  promoted  by 
the  form  of  apologetics  employed.  To  precipitate 
an  issue  between  religion  and  modern  Ufe,  to  set 
religion  in  conflict  with  the  principles  of  modem 
research,  may  be  a  heroic  enterprise ;  but  its  effect 
upon  the  modern  mind  cannot  be  anything  but  a 
pathetic  sense  of  impracticability.     When,  for  ex- 

*  "Das  Kapital,"  ate  Aufl.,  I,  1872,  s.  56,  57. 

*  "Die  Frau  und  der  Sozialismus,"  lote  Aufl.,  1891,  s.  313,  314. 
'Matthieu,   "Das   Christentum  und  die   soziale   Krise  der 

Gegenwart,"  1913,  s.  89,  note. 


THE  PRACTICABILITY   OF   THE   CHRISTIAN   LIFE      9 

ample,  an  eloquent  English  priest  maintains  that 
the  "scientific  temperament"  is  "opposed  to  any 
such  scheme  as  the  Christian";  that  over  against 
the  scientific  view  of  the  universe  stands  the 
"magical  view,"  and  that  one  must  take  his  choice 
which  way  to  go,  *  what  impression  does  his 
brilliant  dialectic  make  on  the  modem  mind? 
One  hears  the  argument  as  from  afar,  as  a  visitor 
to  some  cathedral  hears  the  chanting  of  the  monks 
behind  the  choir-screen.  To  conclude,  "I  cannot 
doubt  that  it  is  truer  to  say  that  Christianity  runs 
counter  to  our  civiUzation  than  that  it  fulfils  it," 
is  to  surrender  the  cause  of  Christianity.  A 
religion  which  runs  counter  to  our  civilization 
will  be  nm  over  by  our  civilization.  If  civiHzation 
stands  at  the  crossroads,  where  one  way  leads  to 
the  "scientific  temperament,"  and  another  to  the 
"Christian  scheme,"  then  there  can  be  httle  doubt 
which  way  the  movement  of  serious  thought  will 
go.  Christianity  and  modern  men  will  soon  find 
themselves  so  far  apart  that  they  cannot  even  hear 
each  other's  voices;  and  Christian  apologists  will 
be  defending  a  position  so  remote  from  the  interests 
of  modem  life  that  it  is  not  even  attacked. 

Or,  when  again,  a  distinguished  philosopher,  ap- 
proaching "the  problem  of  Christianity,"  conceives 
that  problem  to  have  been  hidden  from  the  mind 
of  Jesus  himself,  and  disclosed  only  to  the  later 
Church,  so  that  "the  mind  of  Jesus  did  not  make 

*  Figgis,  "Civilization  at  the  Crossroads,"  1912,  pp.  3,  261. 


lO      THE   CHRISTIAN   LIFE   IN   THE   MODERN   WORLD 

explicit  what  proved  to  be  precisely  the  most  char- 
acteristic feature  of  Christianity;  and  the  core  of 
faith  ...  is  not  in  the  person  or  sayings  of  the 
founder";^  no  amount  of  metaphysical  subtlety 
or  literary  charm  can  obscure  the  fact  that  this  is 
an  impracticable  Christianity.  It  turns  the  New 
Testament  upside  down.  The  Church,  not  its 
Teacher,  becomes  the  object  of  loyalty.  A  conse- 
quence is  mistaken  for  a  cause.  Japanese  Shintoism, 
with  its  reverence  of  ancestors  and  of  the  Imperial 
Throne,  is  a  more  conspicuous  expression  than 
Christianity  of  religion  as  loyalty  to  a  Beloved 
Community.  Christianity,  if  it  is  to  have  any 
practicability,  cannot  forfeit  the  relationship  of 
the  individual  soul  with  its  personal  Master  or  sub- 
stitute devotion  to  the  Church  for  discipleship  of 
Jesus  Christ. 

Something  of  the  same  impression  of  imprac- 
ticabiHty  is  made  on  many  unsophisticated  minds 
by  that  interpretation  of  the  New  Testament,  now 
much  in  fashion,  which  finds  its  essential  character 
in  what  are  called  the  eschatological  or  apocalyptic 
teachings  of  the  Gospels.  It  has  been  of  late 
pointed  out,  with  a  fulness  never  before  attempted, 
that  much  of  the  language  of  the  Gospels,  and  much 
of  the  Uterature  which  lies  behind  the  Gospels,  is 
colored  by  the  anticipation  of  an  approaching 
catastrophe,  which  was  to  make  an  end  of  the 
existing  social  order  and  to  usher  in  the  Messiah's 

*  Royce,  "The  Problem  of  Christianity,"  1913, 1,  pp.  415,  416. 


THE   PRACTICABILITY   OF   THE   CHRISTIAN   LIFE       II 

reign.  This  great  expectation  made,  it  is  urged, 
the  central  motive  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  and 
preparation  for  this  millennial  revolution  was  to 
the  first  disciples  a  supreme  concern. 

Many  passages  of  the  Gospels  go  far  to  confirm 
this  eschatological  view.  A  millennial  hope  unques- 
tionably burned  in  the  hearts  of  the  Hebrew  people, 
and  the  ministry  of  Jesus  no  doubt  fanned  this 
hope  into  a  flame.  "The  Son  of  man  shall  come 
in  his  glory"  ;  "The  time  is  at  hand"  ;  "There  be 
some  standing  here  which  shall  not  taste  of  death 
till  they  see  the  Son  of  man  coming  in  his  king- 
dom" ;  "Watch  ye  therefore  " ;  —  these,  and  many 
similar  prophecies  of  a  world-judgment,  repeat  the 
warnings  of  an  impending  catastrophe  which 
abound  in  the  Apocalyptic  writings.  If,  therefore, 
as  is  confidently  argued,  the  cardinal  principle  of 
New  Testament  interpretation  is  to  be  found  in 
this  feverish  anticipation  of  the  end  of  the  existing 
world,  then  the  ethics  of  Christianity  must  be 
shaped  by  this  expectation  and  must  be  appropriate, 
not  to  social  conditions  which  are  fijxed  or  perma- 
nent, but  to  a  fleeting  and  perishing  world.  It 
must  be  an  interim  ethics,  acceptable  to  those  only 
whose  minds  are  dominated  by  the  millennial 
dream.  Christian  ethics  was  a  product  of  this  early 
expectation  and  must  share  its  fate.  Interim  con- 
duct, adapted  to  a  world  that  is  to  pass  away, 
cannot  be  appropriate  to  a  world  that  is  perma- 
nent.   "Can  any  moralist,"  asks  an  English  critic, 


12      THE   CHRISTIAN   LIFE  IN   THE   MODERN   WORLD 

"firmly  persuaded  of  the  imminent  dissolution  of 
the  world  and  all  things  in  it,  frame  an  ethical  code 
adequate  for  all  time?  .  .  .  These  precepts, 
literally  pursued,  mean  in  any  age  the  dissolution 
of  what  is  called  society.  .  .  .  Jesus  did  not  wish 
to  give  men  something  to  live  by,  but  something 
wherewith  to  face  the  day  of  the  Son  of  man."  ^ 
When,  therefore,  the  dreams  of  the  early  Christians 
proved  to  be  illusory,  and  the  later  followers  of 
Jesus  were  forced  to  adjust  themselves  to  an  im- 
regenerated  world,  it  became  necessary  either  to 
abandon  the  ethical  teaching  of  the  Gospels  or  to 
transform  it  into  principles  which  could  be  rationally 
obeyed.  Christian  conduct  could  not  be  perma- 
nently inspired  by  a  manifest,  even  though  a 
magnificent,  mistake. 

This  conclusion,  though  it  be  defended  as  con- 
tributory to  orthodoxy,  leaves,  in  fact,  little  of 
Christianity  as  the  rehgion  of  Jesus  Christ.  The 
foundation  of  faith  becomes,  not  the  simple  teaching 
of  the  Synoptic  Gospels,  but  the  mystical  visions  re- 
ported after  the  Master's  death.  "The  final  ten- 
dency of  advanced  theology,"  an  English  theologian 
does  not  hesitate  to  aflOirm,^  "  is  backward  .  .  .  and 
its  great  act  of  violence  is  the  driving  of  a  wedge 
between  the  Synoptics  and  the  Epistles,  between 
the  message  of  Jesus  and  the  Gospel  of  his  apostles." 

^  Garrod,  op.  cit.,  pp.  60,  65,  71. 

*  Forsyth,  "The  Person  and  Place  of  Jesus  Christ,"  1909,  pp. 
133, 168, 169. 


TECE   PRACTICABILITY    OF   THE   CHRISTIAN   LIFE      1 3 

The  Synoptics  exhibit,  under  this  interpretation, 
"an  incomplete  situation,  a  raw  audience,  and  an 
inchoate  context  of  evidence."  "It  is  in  the 
Epistles  that  we  have  the  essence  of  Christianity." 
"  The  apostolic  inspiration  .  .  .  takes  as  much  pre- 
cedence of  his  earthly  and  (partly)  interim  teaching 
as  the  finished  work  is  more  luminous  than  the  work 
in  progress."  As  another  English  writer  has  said: 
"  Christ  must  be  looked  at  in  two  ways ;  as  the  his- 
torical Jesus,  who  hved  in  Palestine,  .  .  .  and  as 
the  Eternal  Christ.  .  .  .  When  a  man  discards  the 
claims  of  the  historical  Jesus  he  is  guilty  of  the 
'minor  rejection' ;  but  when  he  pushes  away  from 
him  all  desire  or  acceptance  of  the  Ideal  Christ 
that  involves  what  I  may  call  the  'major  excom- 
mimication.' "  ^ 

The  first  impression  made  by  this  new  defence 
of  the  faith  is  one  of  sheer  bewilderment.  Paul, 
not  Jesus,  becomes  the  founder  of  the  Christian 
religion.  The  Epistles,  not  the  Gospels,  are  its 
most  precious  documents.  Jesus  was  not  under- 
stood until  he  was  gone.  Indeed,  he  did  not  under- 
stand himself.  Orthodoxy  may  thus  become  saved 
at  the  expense  of  historicity.  The  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  and  the  Parables  are  subordinated  to  the 
mysticism  of  Christian  tradition.  "  Non  tali  auxilio 
nee  defensorihus  istis  tempus  eget . "  Christian  faith  is 
not  likely  to  find  itself  strengthened  by  this  under- 
mining of  its  foundations.    The  creeds  are  but  ill-de- 

1  Lloyd,  "Studies  of  Buddhism  in  Japan,"  1908,  p.  29. 


14      THE   CHRISTIAN   LIFE   IN  THE   MODERN   WORLD 

fended  when  they  are  set  in  contrast  with  the  Gospels. 
"  Other  foundation  can  no  man  lay  than  that  is  laid, 
which  is  Jesus  Christ."  Such  subversive  criticism 
tempts  one  to  the  cynicism  of  the  evil  spirit  in  his 
answer  to  the  sons  of  Sceva:  "Jesus  I  know,  and 
Paul  I  know ;  but  who  are  ye  ?  "  ^ 

Even  more  obvious,  however,  is  the  fact  that 
Christian  ethics  on  these  terms  becomes  for  plain 
people,  whose  faith  rests  on  the  Gospel  records 
of  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  impracticable.  Their 
simple  discipleship  of  practical  obedience  is  sup- 
planted by  a  rapt  communion  of  the  spirit  which 
is  possible  to  the  elect  alone.  Phrases  like 
"The  imitation  of  Christ"  and  "Follow  me,"  lose 
their  meaning  in  this  rarefied  theological  atmos- 
phere. "In  the  Christianity  that  is  to  be,"  it  is 
taught,  "we  shall  hear  still,  I  hope,  of  the  imitation, 
but  more  also  of  the  limitation  of  Christ."  ^  Escha- 
tology  thus  in  large  degree  eliminates  ethics. 
"The  price  demanded,"  we  must  conclude  with 
Dean  Inge,  "is  riunous.  ...  To  cut  off  the  tree 
of  Christianity  from  its  roots,  to  accept  the  cynical 
conclusion  that  a  great  world-religion  arose  out  of 
the  crazy  visions  of  a  mistaken  enthusiast,  —  all 
this  is  to  bring  desolation,  not  peace,  to  the  mind 
of  the  troubled  behever."  ^ 

Serious,  however,  as  may  be  the  effects  of  these 

1  Acts,  XIX,  15. 

'  Garrod,  op.  cit.,  p.  60. 

'  Constructive  Quarterly,  June,  1913,  pp.  319,  304. 


THE   PRACTICABILITY   OF   THE   CHRISTIAN   LIFE      1 5 

tendencies  in  criticism  and  apologetics,  it  is  not 
through  them  that  the  sense  of  impracticability 
for  the  Christian  life  is  chiefly  conveyed.  Much 
more  convincing  to  the  great  mass  of  plain  people 
than  these  discussions  of  the  critics  is  the  evidence 
of  their  own  observation  of  contemporary  con- 
duct. What  is  the  practical  effect  of  Christian 
motives,  they  ask  themselves,  on  those  who  pro- 
fess Christianity?  Do  their  lives  testify  to  the 
practicability  of  their  faith?  Is  the  Christian 
religion  actually  moulding  the  habits  of  Chris- 
tian believers;  or  are  the  ideals  of  Christianity 
revered  much  more  than  they  are  realized  ?  Here 
is  the  point  where  the  authority  of  the  Chris- 
tian life  seems  most  difl&cult  to  maintain.  Its 
position  is  undermined  by  the  im-Christian  con- 
duct of  Christians.  Its  defence  is  more  imperilled 
by  treachery  than  by  attack.  The  reaction  from 
Christianity  is  not  so  much  intellectual  as  it  is 
moral.  The  most  threatening  enemy  of  rehgion  is 
not  infidelity  but  inconsistency.  "To  a  large  ex- 
tent," said  John  Bright  in  1880,  "the  working 
people  of  this  country  do  not  care  any  more  for 
the  doctrines  of  Christianity  than  the  upper  classes 
care  for  the  practice  of  that  religion."  ^  Might  not 
a  similar  indictment  be  made  to-day?  What 
shall  one  say  of  a  condition  of  society  where 
the  creeds  of  the  Church  are  often  devoutly 
repeated  without  perceptible  effect  on  the  prac- 
^Trevelyan,  "Life  of  John  Bright,"  1913,  p.  428. 


l6      THE   CHRISTIAN   LIFE   IN   THE   MODERN  WORLD 

tical  conduct  of  domestic  or  social  affairs,  where 
divorce  or  gambling  may  be  no  bar  to  social  recog- 
nition, and  where  the  entertainments  of  the  pros- 
perous may  exhibit  a  vulgarity  not  tolerated  in  the 
dance-halls  of  the  slums?  If  the  current  moral 
standards  of  Christian  believers  are  no  better  than 
those  which  prevail  among  other  decent  people, 
how  can  the  Christian  teaching  be  regarded  as 
having  unique  significance  ?  If  self-sacrifice,  gener- 
osity, and  integrity  are  often  found  quite  apart 
from  religious  profession,  may  not  the  Christian 
character  be  regarded  as  superfluous  in  modem  life  ? 
May  it  not  be  probable  that  the  prevailing  standard 
of  conventional  conduct,  the  ''social  ethos,"  as  Pro- 
fessor Sumner  called  it,  is  in  fact  governing  habit  and 
desire,  even  where  religious  faith  appears  to  control  ? 
May  not  many  people  deceive  themselves  with  the 
belief  that  they  are  disciples  of  Jesus  Christ,  when 
in  fact  they  are  children  of  their  own  age,  or  tradi- 
tion, or  race?  If  one  should  scrutinize  his  own 
conduct,  might  it  not  appear  that  the  ideals  of 
Christianity  have  become  impracticable  in  the  life 
which  he  is  compelled  to  lead  ? 

Even  when  one  turns  from  these  obvious  delin- 
quencies to  more  heroic  lives,  a  similar  impression 
of  impracticability  may  be  felt.  When,  for  example, 
an  exalted  nature  Uke  that  of  Tolstoi  breaks  away 
from  social  ties,  scorning  and  rebuking  modem 
civilization  in  the  name  of  the  Christian  life,  and  at 
last,  in  the  dark  and  cold  of  a  Russian  winter, 


THE   PRACTICABILITY   OF   THE   CHRISTIAN   LIFE      1 7 

abandons  wife  and  family  to  secure  for  his  last  days 
Christian  peace,  what  effect  does  this  struggle  for  con- 
sistency make  upon  the  modem  mind  ?  Reverence, 
honor,  the  hush  of  criticism  in  the  presence  of  death 
—  all  these  have  been  world-wide,  but  this  emotional 
admiration  cannot  disguise  the  hopeless  impractica- 
bility of  such  a  faith.  Like  the  charge  of  Balaklava, 
it  was  magnificent,  but  it  was  not  war.  It  did  not 
win  the  battle  of  life  :  it  ran  away  from  that  battle. 
The  ethics  of  Tolstoi,  instead  of  facing  a  conflict 
with  the  world,  counselled  a  flight  from  the  world. 
Europe  and  Asia,  as  Hamack  has  said,  met  in 
Tolstoi,  and  Asia  conquered.  Oriental  quietism 
became  the  ideal  of  the  Christian  character.  In- 
stead of  saving  others,  Tolstoi  fled  from  others  to 
save  himself ;  and  by  a  curious  Nemesis  this  final 
desire  for  solitary  peace  was  pitifully  frustrated. 
Never  was  Tolstoi  so  much  before  the  eyes  of  the 
world,  or  of  so  much  trouble  to  his  friends,  as  in 
his  death.  The  lonely  railway  station  where  he 
lay  became  a  camp  where  family  and  disciples 
guarded  his  last  hours,  and  a  score  of  reporters 
watched  at  the  bedside  of  the  old  man  whose  su- 
preme wish  was  to  die  alone.  If,  then,  says  the 
modem  man,  this  is  Christian  discipleship,  it  is 
simply  not  for  me.  If  this  is  the  sober,  righteous, 
and  godly  life,  then  it  cannot  be  Uved  "in  this 
present  world."  For  me,  and  for  millions  like  me, 
there  can  be  no  retreat  from  things  as  they  are. 
My  ethics  cannot  be  those  of  the  runaway.    Home 


l8      THE   CHRISTIAN   LIFE   IN   THE   MODERN  WORLD 

and  family,  money-getting  and  money-spending, 
the  temptations  of  commercial  and  social  life  — 
these  are  not  to  be  eluded  as  snares  for  my  soul. 
They  are  the  essential  conditions  under  which  my 
soul  must  be  saved,  if  saved  it  can  be.  If  the 
Christian  life  means  non-resistance,  asceticism, 
monasticism,  then,  however  beautiful  and  un- 
worldly such  saintliness  may  be,  it  must  remain 
for  me  nothing  more  than  an  impracticable  and 
imrealizable  dream. 

From  the  impression  thus  created,  either  by 
learning  or  by  life,  of  the  inapplicability  of  Chris- 
tian ethics  to  the  modem  world,  there  have  fol- 
lowed two  sorts  of  consequences.  On  the  one 
hand  is  the  sentimental  approval  of  a  faith  which 
cannot  be  reduced  to  practice.  One  may  revere 
the  teaching  without  proposing  to  obey  it.  Chris- 
tian conduct  may  come  to  be  regarded  as  a  Catholic 
layman  views  the  vita  religiosa  of  the  clerical 
orders.  It  is  a  counsel  of  perfection  which  few 
can  accept,  but  which  an  unsanctified  world  may 
admire  from  afar.  Thus  there  may  ensue  a  view 
of  the  Christian  Ufe  which  is  practically  that  of  a 
looker-on;  a  conventional  conformity  which  does 
not  even  propose  to  itself  a  genuine  obedience. 
Certain  incidents  of  experience  —  birth,  marriage, 
and  death  —  may  be  consecrated  to  God ;  but  the 
long  years  of  work  and  play,  of  love  and  struggle, 
are  ruled  by  motives  of  the  world,  the  flesh,  or  the 
devil.    One  comes  to  live  on  a  left-over  piety,  as 


THE   PRACTICABILITY   OF   THE   CHRISTIAN   LIFE      1 9 

he  may  live  on  an  inherited  estate,  without  much 
thought  of  its  origin  or  responsibility.  Christian 
believers,  as  Lawrence  Oliphant  once  said,  fall  into 
two  great  groups,  the  wholly  woridly  and  the 
woridly-holy.  The  surface  of  life  may  be  smoothed 
by  Christian  ordinances  and  consolations,  while 
the  depths  remain  unperturbed.  Thus  one  may  be 
in  practice  a  citizen  of  "this  present  world,"  but 
in  theory,  or  in  moments  of  profound  sorrow  and 
joy,  a  patron  of  "the  sober,  righteous,  and  godly 
life."  "If  all  things  that  evil  and  vicious  manners 
have  caused  to  seem  inconvenient  .  .  .  should  be 
refused,"  wrote  Sir  Thomas  More,  in  words  which 
have  a  very  modem  ring,  "then  we  must  among 
Christian  people  wink  at  the  most  part  of  all  those 
things  which  Christ  taught  us.  .  ,  .  But  preachers 
.  .  .  have  wrested  and  wried  his  doctrine,  and 
like  a  rule  of  lead  applied  it  to  men's  manners, 
that  by  some  means  .  .  .  they  might  agree  to- 
gether." 1 

On  the  other  hand  is  the  more  candid  and  open 
reaction  from  a  code  which  is  inconsistent  with 
modern  Ufe.  If,  it  is  argued,  all  that  can  be  sub- 
stituted for  an  incredible  theology  is  an  impossible 
ethics,  then,  it  would  seem,  the  Christian  religion 
must  be  frankly  discarded  as  an  impracticable 
faith.  As  the  cosmology  of  Genesis  once  obstructed 
the  advance  of  science,  so,  it  is  concluded,  the  eth- 
ics of  the  Gospels  have  now  become  social  obstruc- 
^  "Utopia,"  tr.  Robinson,  1624,  First  Booke,  p.  38. 


20      THE   CHRISTIAN   LIFE   IN  THE   MODERN   WORLD 

tions  or  indorsements  of  wrong,  and  those  who 
commit  themselves  to  the  modem  spirit  must 
turn  away,  some  with  sorrow,  and  some  with  scorn. 
Like  the  men  of  the  parable,  they  go  their  ways, 
one  to  his  farm,  another  to  his  merchandise ;  or,  in 
a  more  tragic  reaction,  bitterness  and  wrath  may 
possess  the  soul  of  one  who  recalls  what  was  taught 
him  as  eternal  truth,  until  he  turns  on  those  feeble 
arguments  and  slays  them. 

It  is  folly  to  disguise  from  one's  self  the  extent 
of  this  defection,  not  only  from  the  theology,  but 
hardly  less  from  the  ethics  of  Christianity.  The 
ominous  fact  confronts  the  modem  world  that  a 
very  large  proportion,  not  only  of  frivolous  and 
superficial  people,  but  also  of  serious  and  cul- 
tivated minds,  have  simply  dropped  the  motives 
of  rehgion  from  among  their  habitual  resources, 
and  are  supported  in  their  experiences  by  sanctions 
and  consolations  derived  from  science  or  art,  from 
work  or  play.  Much  of  this  modem  paganism  is 
due,  no  doubt,  to  the  reserve  of  science  or  to  the 
preoccupation  of  business,  but  much  is  also  due 
to  the  superfluous  refinements  of  Christian  theology 
and   the  imreal  distinctions  of   Christian   ethics. 

Whatever  may  be  the  proportion  of  these  various 
influences,  the  result  is  beyond  dispute.  We  hear 
much  of  the  alienation  of  the  working-classes  from 
religion,  and  new  ways  are  bravely  devised  to  reach 
the  masses  and  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  the  poor. 
But  this  defection  of  the  wage-earners,  serious  as 


THE   PRACTICABILITY   OF   THE   CHRISTIAN   LIFE      21 

it  may  be,  does  not  compare  in  significance  with 
the  intellectual  neutrality  or  indifference  of  great 
numbers  of  the  privileged  and  thoughtful.  Fifty 
years  ago  Huxley,  in  a  touching  letter  to  Charles 
Klingsley,  wrote:  "Understand  me  that  all  the 
young  men  of  science  whom  I  know  are  essentially 
of  my  way  of  thinking.  I  know  not  a  scoffer  or 
an  irreligious  man  among  them,  but  all  regard 
orthodoxy  as  you  do  Brahminism"  ;^  and  at  about 
the  same  date,  Lowell,  in  his  Essay  on  Lessing, 
said:  "The  world  has  advanced  to  where  Lessing 
stood,  while  the  Church  has  stood  stock  still,  and 
it  would  be  a  curious,  were  it  not  a  melancholy, 
spectacle  to  see  the  indifference  with  which  the 
laity  look  on  while  theologians  thrash  their  wheat- 
less  straw."  ^ 

What,  a  generation  ago,  was  but  a  half- 
recognized  alienation  is  now  unmistakable  and 
conspicuous.  Great  numbers  of  modern  minds 
are  not  even  critical  of  reUgion ;  they  have  simply 
turned  their  attention  another  way.  One  must 
begin  a  defence  of  the  Christian  Ufe  to-day  with 
much  the  same  words  which  Schleiermacher 
used  a  century  ago:  "It  may  appear  an  im- 
expected  and  extraordinary  undertaking  that  any 
one  should  still  venture  to  demand  from  those 
who  are  conscious  of  their  superiority  and  are  mas- 
ters of  modern  learning,  any  attention  for  a  sub- 

^  "Life  and  Letters,"' 1900, 1,  p.  219. 
2  "Prose  Works,"  II,  p.  217. 


22      THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

ject  which  they  have  so  completely  put  aside."  ^ 
A  man  of  science,  not  long  ago,  when  asked  his 
opinion  about  religious  problems,  answered, 
"We  simply  do  not  think  of  these  things  at  all." 
On  the  whole,  then,  the  conclusion  seems  not 
imreasonable  which  was  reached  in  1903  by  a  dis- 
cerning writer :  "  When  the  religious  history  of  the 
nineteenth  century  comes  to  be  fully  understood,  it 
will  probably  be  found  that  at  no  period  in  all  the 
long  story  of  Christianity  has  the  Christian  faith 
been  subjected  to  so  great  an  intellectual  strain."  ^ 
Here  is  a  situation  which  must  be  frankly  faced. 
No  cause  is  safe  if  it  lose  the  loyalty  of  the  best 
trained  minds;  and  in  spite  of  much  rallying  of 
forces,  and  reckoning  of  statistics,  and  munificence 
of  giving,  it  can  hardly  be  maintained  that  the 
motives  and  aims  which  habitually  govern  the 
thought  and  work  of  the  typical  man  of  "this  pres- 
ent world"  are  chiefly  derived  from  the  creed  or 
the  code  of  the  Christian  Church.  If  Christian 
dogma  seems  to  ask  more  than  reason  can  give, 
and  Christian  morals  to  involve  more  than  social 
stability  can  endure,  then  the  chasm  between  the 
Church  and  the  world  has  become  permanently 
impassable.  The  Church  stands  apart  from  the 
world,  like  a  mediaeval  castle  on  its  inaccessible 
height,  picturesque  but  remote,  a  noble  but  un- 
frequented ruin. 

^  "Reden  iiber  die  Religion,"  1799, 1,  s.  i. 

»  D.  C.  Caims,  Contemporary  Review,  Vol.  84,  p.  694. 


THE   PRACTICABILITY   OF   THE   CHRISTIAN   LIFE      23 

If,  then,  this  impression  of  impracticability  is 
so  general  and  so  undisguised,  among  both  critics 
and  defenders  of  the  Christian  religion,  must  it 
not  be  concluded  that  Christian  loyalty  may  be 
dismissed  from  consideration  by  rational  and  prac- 
tical minds?  Must  it  not  be  confessed  that  the 
sober,  righteous,  and  godly  life  commended  to 
Titus,  though  practicable  in  Crete,  is  incompatible 
with  the  inevitable  conditions  of  the  modem  world, 
and  that  new  motives  must  be  found  for  personal 
and  social  morals?  On  the  contrary,  the  con- 
siderations which  have  been  enumerated  indicate 
with  precision  where  the  problem  of  Christian 
teaching  for  the  moment  lies.  What  is  the  funda- 
mental fallacy  in  these  discouraging  conceptions 
of  Christian  ethics?  It  is  the  confusion  of  the 
temporary,  occasional,  and  incidental  aspects  of 
the  Gospel  with  its  imiversal,  spiritual,  and  per- 
manent message.  Literalism  applied  to  the  New 
Testament  —  however  reverent  it  may  appear 
to  itself  to  be  —  is  essentially  unhistorical.  It 
forces  each  incident  or  phrase  into  the  foreground 
of  the  picture,  so  that  it  has  no  environment  of 
time  or  place,  no  shading  or  perspective,  and  that 
is  to  pervert  history  in  the  name  of  piety.  A  fact 
may  be  distorted  quite  as  easily  by  false  perspective 
as  by  false  definition.  The  truth  of  history,  as  of 
nature,  is  to  be  found  in  the  proportion  and  re- 
lation of  facts. 

When,  for  example,  the  eschatology  of  the  Gos- 


24      THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

pels  is  made  the  master-key  of  their  meaning,  it 
is  not  necessary  to  argue  that  this  Messianic  dream 
did  not  color  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  He  spoke 
the  language  of  his  own  time  and  race,  and  he  could 
clothe  his  spiritual  purpose  in  no  other  form  than 
that  of  the  national  expectation ;  but  to  drag  this 
background  of  the  Gospels  into  the  foreground, 
and  to  find  in  Jesus  merely  a  Hebrew  enthusiast 
announcing  a  Utopian  dream,  is  to  distort  the 
perspective  of  his  teaching  and  to  rob  it  of  unity 
and  insight.  Nothing,  in  fact,  is  more  imlike  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  than  the  apprehensive,  excited, 
or  nervous  sense  of  an  approaching  catastrophe. 
His  moral  maxims  are  not  based  on  an  interim 
ethics  adapted  to  a  transitory  world.  On  the 
contrary,  they  are  —  as  the  common  sense  of 
two  thousand  years  has  perceived  —  characterized 
by  adaptability,  universality,  and  permanence. 
"We  cannot,"  Hamack  has  lately  said  in  one  of 
his  conclusive  aphorisms,  "derive  the  ethical  ideal 
from  the  eschatological."  ^  There  is  nothing  of 
an  interim  ethics,  nothing  feverish  and  evanescent, 
in  humihty,  forgiveness,  purity  of  heart,  sacrifice, 
or  service;  yet  these,  and  virtues  like  these,  are 
the  pillars  of  Christian  ethics.  The  habitual 
attitude  of  Jesus  in  the  presence  of  the  great  prob- 
lems of  experience  has  a  serenity,  assurance,  and 
sympathy,  far  removed  from  the  excited  anticipa- 
tions of  abrupt  and  final  change ;  and  it  becomes 
^  "Aus  Wissenschaft  und  Leben,"  191 1,  II,  s.  267. 


THE   PRACTICABILITY   OF    THE   CHRISTIAN   LIFE       2$ 

quite  as  probable  that  the  vein  of  eschatological 
allusion  which  runs  through  the  Gospels  betrays 
the  preconceptions  of  the  Evangelists  as  that  it 
reveals  the  teacher's  mind.  "Jesus  above  the 
heads  of  his  reporters"  is,  as  Matthew  Arnold 
said,  a  wise  canon  of  New  Testament  criticism. 
"  If  Jesus, "  one  of  the  most  painstaking  modern 
studies  of  the  hfe  of  Jesus  concludes,  "  had  been 
the  Apocalyptic  that  Schweitzer  contends,  he 
would  not  have  ended  his  life  on  the  cross,  but 
somehow  in  the  style  of  those  imaginative  works 
which  tell  of  the  end  of  the  world  and  the  secrets 
of  the  sky.  ...  To  fail  to  recognize  in  him 
what  was  the  first,  the  inspiring,  the  really 
creative,  is  to  look  at  things  upside  down."  ^ 
The  eschatological  interpretation  of  the  Gospels, 
in  short,  when  rigidly  followed,  confuses  color 
with  form,  by-product  with  main  intention,  and 
finds  the  ethics  of  Jesus  impracticable  because  it 
sees  them  out  of  that  perspective  which  gave  them 
beauty  and  truth. 

The  same  conclusion  may  be  reached  when  one 
scrutinizes  more  closely  the  Christian  quietism  of 
Tolstoi.  Much  there  unquestionably  was  in  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  which  encourages  a  retreat  from 
the  complexity  of  civilization  to  simpHcity,  poverty, 
and  solitude.  The  ascetic  life,  through  all  the 
Christian  centuries,  has  found  itself  fortified  by 

*  Weinel  and  Widgery,  "  Jesus  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 
and  After,"  1914,  p.  104. 


26      THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

many  sayings  of  the  Gospels.  Unworldliness, 
serenity,  and  restraint  are  conspicuous  notes  of 
New  Testament  ethics.  Jesus  was  an  Oriental, 
and  above  the  turbulent  vicissitudes  of  his  life 
brooded  a  spiritual  calm  like  a  spring  sunset  above 
the  hills  of  Galilee.  But  to  confuse  Oriental 
imagery  with  universal  principles,  to  single  out  a 
teaching  of  non-resistance  as  the  core  of  the  Gos- 
pels, to  retreat  from  social  obligations  in  the  name 
of  one  who  gladly  shared  them  and  was  called  a 
friend  of  wine-bibbers  and  publicans  —  all  this, 
however  heroic  it  may  be,  is  not  only  an  imprac- 
ticable discipleship,  but  a  historical  perversion. 
It  mistakes  the  occasionalism  of  the  Gospels  for 
universahsm.  It  pictures  Jesus  as  posing  before 
the  glass  of  the  future,  proclaiming  in  every  utter- 
ance a  imiversal  law,  when  in  fact  he  is  primarily 
concerned  with  the  individual  case  immediately 
before  him,  and  is  applying  universal  laws  to  the 
interpretation  and  redemption  of  that  single  Hfe. 

The  same  false  perspective  may  be  observed  in 
many  other  modem  interpretations  of  the  Gos- 
pels. Jesus  was  a  friend  of  the  poor  and  a  critic 
of  the  rich.  "The  spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me," 
he  said,  "  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  the  poor."  "How 
hardly  shall  they  that  have  riches  enter  into  the 
kingdom  of  God  !"  "Woe  unto  you  that  are  rich ; 
blessed  are  ye  poor."  "It  is  easier  for  a  camel 
to  go  through  a  needle's  eye  than  for  a  rich  man 
to  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God."    What,  then. 


THE   PRACTICABILITY   OF  THE   CHRISTIAN  LITE      27 

it  is  hotly  urged,  was  Jesus  but  a  prophet  of  social 
revolution,  a  class-conscious  socialist;  and  what 
was  the  new  religion  but  an  anticipation  of  the 
modem  programme  of  a  rearrangement  in  economic 
production,  distribution,  and  exchange?  "Chris- 
tianity," Professor  Nitti  has  said,  "was  a  vast 
economic  revolution  more  than  anything  else." 
"Most  of  the  great  schisms  and  conflicts  by  which 
the  Catholic  Church  has  been  torn,  were  economic 
conflicts."^  "The  democracy  of  property,"  ac- 
cording to  an  American  socialist,  "is  the  larger 
revelation  of  Christ  .  .  .  The  rejection  of  his 
social  ideal  was  the  crucifixion  he  carried  in  his 
heart."  ^  Here  again  the  sayings  of  the  Gospels 
must  be  accepted  in  all  their  solemn  and  perma- 
nent significance.  The  deceitfulness  of  riches,  the 
responsibiUty  of  talent,  the  solemn  alternatives  of 
the  dedication  of  wealth  or  its  abnegation  —  these 
warnings  or  rebukes  are  as  convincing  as  ever. 
But  it  does  not  follow  from  these  sayings  that 
Jesus  was  a  curbstone  agitator,  inflaming  a  class- 
conscious  conflict.  The  modern  revolutionist,  if 
he  listen  at  all  to  the  teaching  of  the  Gospels, 
hears  in  it  nothing  but  the  confirmation  of  his 
own  social  creed.  He  seizes  on  fragmentary  ut- 
terances with  no  regard  for  their  connection  or 
intention.  It  is  one  more  instance  of  Uteralism 
distorting  the  record.    It  mistakes  the  by-products 

*  "Catholic  Socialism,"  1895,  pp.  62,  72. 

*G.  D.  Herron,  "The  New  Redemption,"  1893,  pp.  63,  80. 


28      THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

of  the  teaching  for  its  main  intention.  Whatever 
social  changes  Jesus  may  have  foreseen,  his  mind 
was  not  primarily  fixed  on  economic  affairs.  He 
was  not  a  reformer,  but  a  revealer.  "Who 
made  me,"  he  said,  "a  judge  or  a  divider  over 
you?"  A  changed  world  might  issue  from  his 
teaching,  but  it  was  to  issue  from  a  change  of  heart. 
He  was  not,  first  of  all,  a  socialist,  but  a  saviour. 
He  came  to  convert  not  things,  but  men.  "The 
preaching  of  Jesus,"  Harnack  has  declared  with 
emphasis  in  the  volume  just  cited,  "and  the  estab- 
lishing of  a  new  religious  brotherhood,  were  not 
essentially  a  social  agitation;  that  is,  they  did 
not  issue  from  an  antecedent  class-conflict  or  annex 
themselves  thereto,  and  in  general  had  no  direct 
connection  with  the  social  revolutions  of  the  ancient 
world." 

These  considerations  of  the  fallacies  of  literalism 
point  to  the  conclusion  that  the  Christian  religion 
is  a  much  larger  thing  than  many  of  its  critics, 
and  some  of  its  defenders,  have  supposed.  It  as- 
sumes many  forms,  but  is  exhausted  by  none.  Its 
fragmentary  utterances  may  become  impracticable 
guides,  while  its  total  view  of  hfe,  its  general  law 
of  conduct,  may  have  permanent  practicability. 
The  Gospels  are  perennially  perplexing  to  the 
literalist  because  they  say  so  many  different  things. 
If  each  verse  must  be  regarded  as  of  equal  weight, 
then  each  should  balance  and  confirm  another. 
The  fact  is,  however,  that  at  many  points  the 


THE  PRACTICABILITY   OF   THE   CHRISTIAN   LIFE      29 

teaching  is  seK-contradictory.  At  one  moment 
Jesus  counsels  non-resistance,  and  at  another 
moment  commends  soldierliness.  At  one  time 
he  offers  peace ;  at  another  he  bums  with  indigna- 
tion. He  blesses  the  poor  without  scorning  the 
rich.  He  welcomes  solitude,  but  serves  society. 
He  proclaims  the  kingdom  of  God  as  coming  in 
outward  clouds  of  glory,  yet  finds  that  kingdom 
within  the  human  heart.  To  one  disciple  he  says, 
"Come  unto  me,  and  I  will  give  you  rest";  to 
another  he  says,  "If  any  man  will  come  after  me, 
let  him  take  up  his  cross  and  follow."  In  one 
saying  he  commends  social  equality  —  "I  will 
give  imto  this  last  even  as  unto  thee"  ;  in  another 
saying  he  announces  the  law  of  cumulative  in- 
equality—  "Unto  every  one  that  hath  shall  be 
given,  and  he  shall  have  abundance ;  but  from  him 
that  hath  not  shall  be  taken  away  even  that  which 
he  hath." 

What  do  these  apparent  inconsistencies  indicate  ? 
Do  they  condemn  the  teaching  as  illogical  and 
wavering,  swayed  by  circumstances  rather  than 
steadied  by  principles?  Must  one  select  a  single 
saying,  erect  it  as  a  monumental  teaching,  and 
discard  as  an  interpolation  or  gloss  whatever  does 
not  harmonize  with  this  central  law?  On  the 
contrary,  it  is  precisely  at  this  point  that  the 
teaching  discloses  a  character  and  scope  which 
makes  it  a  practicable  guide  for  modern  men.  A 
witty  American  once  said :  "  It  is  easy  enough  to  die 


3©     THE  CHRISTIAX  LIFE  IN  THE  MODESX  WORLD 

for  an  idea,  if  you  have  only  one  idea."  The  great- 
ness of  Jesus  is  in  his  having  so  many  ideas,  for 
any  (me  of  which  men  have  been  willing  to  die. 
His  teaching  is  marked  by  sanity  and  poise  amcmg 
solicitations  to  excess;  by  many-sidedness,  by 
sympathetic  wisdom.  The  variations  in  the  teach- 
ing are  precisely  what  give  the  key  to  its  interpre- 
tation. They  forbid  the  attempt  to  fix  one  say- 
ing in  the  centre  of  the  Goq)el  and  all  else  in  its 
circumference.  They  correct  the  reverent  but 
misleading  desire  to  study  eadi  occasicmal  sa>ing 
as  a  universal  truth.  They  compel  one  to  pene- 
trate throu^  the  occasicmaHsm  of  the  tparhmg 
to  the  princq>les  whidi  these  incidental  utterances 
disdose,  and  to  apply  to  new  and  unprecedented 
conditions  a  teaching  which  necessarily  used  the 
language  and  met  the  needs  of  its  own  time;  in 
shut,  to  pass  from  the  letter  of  the  Gospels  to  the 
^nrit  of  the  Gospels,  and  to  confess,  with  P&ul, 
that  the  letter  kiUeth  while  the  ^[urit  g^veth  Ufe. 
"True  Christianity,"  a  great  KngHsh  teacher  has 
said,^  "is  not  something  which  was  published  in 
Palestine  and  which  has  been  handed  down  by  a 
dead  traditioii  ever  since;  it  is  a  living  and  grow- 
ing spirit,  that  kams  the  less(ms  of  history,  and 
is  ever  manifesting  new  powos  and  leading  on  to 
new  truths." 

On  this  condusion  dq[>eiids  the  practicability 
of  the  Christian  life.    If  the  teaching  of  Jesus  were 

*Edmid  Guid.  "Lay  SennBS  aad  AddRsscs,**  1907,  p.  67. 


THE  PRACTICABILITY   OF   THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE      3 1 

a  fixed  deposit  of  revelation  from  which  successive 
ages  must  draw  their  moral  code,  then  the  supply 
might  become  exhausted  as  the  demand  increased. 
A  teaching  fit  for  Galilee  may  weU  become  inap- 
pKcable  to  modem  Europe.  "Give  to  him  that 
asketh  thee,"  may  be  good  ethics  in  the  sim- 
plicity of  Nazareth  and  bad  economics  in  the 
complexity  of  London.  If  the  Christian  life 
must  be  one  of  literal  conformity  to  the  conditions 
under  which  the  Gospel  teaching  was  originally 
given,  then  it  is  unquestionably  true  that  we  are 
"none  of  us  Christians,  and  we  know  we  ought 
not  to  be."  It  is,  however,  misdirected  reverence 
which  thus  reduces  the  Christian  rehgion  to  an 
unalterable  fixity.  The  purpose  of  Jesus  Christ 
was  to  free  religion  from  this  asphyxiation  by  the 
temporary,  the  technical,  the  external,  and  to 
give  it  room  to  breathe  and  to  grow.  What  has 
been  depreciatingly  called  a  "reduced  Christianity," 
is  in  fact  a  liberated  Christianity.  The  practica- 
bility of  the  Christian  Ufe  depends  upon  its  flexibil- 
ity, its  appHcability,  its  capacity  for  expansion,  the 
possibility  of  translating  —  as  Martineau  said  — 
one  Gospel  into  many  dialects,  the  contagion  of  its 
influence,  the  transmission  of  its  example.  "  We 
not  only  can,  but  must  be  Christians,"  concludes 
Eucken,  "  —  only,  however,  on  the  one  condition 
that  Christianity  be  recognized  as  a  progressive 
historic  movement,  still  in  the  making."  * 

1  Op.  cit.,  p.  218. 


32      THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

As  one  reads  the  Gospels  there  meet  him  two 
great  words  which  announce  the  nature  of  the 
teaching,  as  recurring  motifs  reiterate  a  central 
theme.  The  first  is  the  word  Power;  the  second 
is  the  word  Life.  The  first  is  the  characteristic 
word  of  the  Synoptic  Gospels:  "The  multitudes 
glorified  God  which  had  given  such  power  imto 
men";  "His  word  was  with  power";  "Until  ye 
be  endued  with  power  from  on  high";  "Till 
they  have  seen  the  kingdom  of  God  come  with 
power."  The  second  is  the  word  of  the  Fourth 
Gospel:  "I  am  the  bread  of  life";  "In  him 
was  life,  and  the  life  was  the  light  of  men"; 
"He  that  believeth  not  the  Son,  shall  not  see 
life";  "Ye  will  not  come  to  me  that  ye  might 
have  life";  "The  words  that  I  speak  unto  you, 
they  are  spirit  and  they  are  life";  "I  am  come 
that  they  might  have  life."  Power  and  Life  are, 
however,  words,  not  of  opinion  or  definition,  but 
of  expansion,  vitality,  momentum,  growth.  They 
are  symbols  of  a  dynamic  faith.  Power  is  gener- 
ated to  be  applied.  Life  is  given  to  be  transmitted. 
To  restrict  power  is  to  waste  it ;  to  save  life  is  to 
lose  it.  The  Christian  Ufe  is  not  a  thing  to 
keep,  but  a  thing  to  give;  not  an  ancient  tradi- 
tion, but  a  new  creation;  not  a  stopping-place, 
but  a  way.  "I  am  the  way,"  said  Jesus.  The 
first  title  given  to  the  new  religion  by  its  followers 
was  "The  Way."  It  was,  according  to  the  Apostle 
Paul,  "the  power  of  God  unto  salvation";   "the 


THE   PRACTICABILITY   OF   THE   CHRISTIAN   LIFE      33 

power  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  "Salvation,"  a 
trusted  English  scholar  has  said,^  "is  nothing  else 
than  the  preservation,  restoration,  and  exaltation  of 
life."  "The  beginning  of  Christianity,"  it  has 
been  lately  urged  in  a  most  searching  book,  "seems 
to  represent  the  first  definite  emergence  of  a  new 
kind  of  Ufe."  ^ 

The  Christian  character  is  thus  a  manifes- 
tation of  power,  a  way  of  life.  The  kingdom  of 
God  is  like  leaven,  like  a  great  tree;  but  leaven 
is  a  pervasive  influence,  a  tree  is  an  unfolding 
growth.  Christian  ethics  is  a  science  of  spiritual 
dynamics.  It  deals  with  a  world  in  motion.  Its 
purpose  is  to  communicate  Power;  its  aim  is  to 
increase  Life.  "  There  is  just  one  religion  in  the 
world,"  it  has  been  lately  and  finely  said  by  an 
AngUcan  teacher,  "  which  has  seen  in  motion  the 
law  of  human  life.  .  .  .  No  religion  that  has  adopted 
arrest  as  its  note  can  do  anything  for  man  in  move- 
ment. .  .  .  Only  a  religion  which  can  hallow  and 
justify  motion  can  be  of  any  use  to  him."^  Here 
one  meets  the  note  of  emancipation  and  exhila- 
ration which  is  heard  throughout  the  letters  of  Paul 
as  he  feels  himself  stirred  by  this  new  vitality  and 
force.  He  has  escaped  from  the  bonds  of  the  Law 
to  the  liberty  of  the  Gospel.  He  is  a  minister, 
not  of  the  letter,  but  of  the  spirit.    The  letter  had 

^Hort,  "Hulsean  Lectures,"  1893,  p.  loi. 

*E.  Underbill,  "  The  Mystic  Way,"  1913,  p.  43  ff. 

•  H.  S.  Holland,  Constr.  Rev.,  June,  1914,  pp.  248,  250. 

D 


34     THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE    IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

killed;  the  spirit  gives  life.  His  earlier  faith 
had  set  a  veil  between  God  and  himself,  but  the 
veil  is  taken  away  in  Christ.  Where  the  spirit 
of  the  Lord  is,  there  is  Hberty.  With  unveiled 
face  he  sees  the  glory  of  the  Lord.  His  strength 
is  made  perfect  in  weakness.  The  power  of  Christ 
rests  upon  him.  His  life  is  hid  with  Christ  in 
God. 

When  the  Council  of  Trent  explicitly  anath- 
ematized the  opinion  that  "Christ  was  given  to 
mankind  as  a  Redeemer,  and  not  also  as  a  legis- 
lator," it  made  this  fundamental  issue  clear.  The 
Christian  religion  as  a  form  of  legislation  stands 
forever  over  against  the  Christian  religion  as  a 
way  of  redemption.  On  the  one  hand  is  the  im- 
perial conception  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  on  the 
other  the  spiritual  conception.  A  form  of  gov- 
ernment, a  legislating  hierarchy,  has  in  its  very 
nature  the  quahties  of  inflexibility  and  fixity.  A 
Life,  a  Power,  a  redemptive  force,  has  in  its 
very  nature  perennial  possibilities  of  expansion 
and  adaptation.  "Truth,"  said  Milton,  "is  com- 
par'd  in  Scripture  to  a  streaming  fountain.  If 
her  waters  flow  not  in  a  perpetuall  progression, 
they  sick'n  into  a  muddy  pool  of  conformity  and 
tradition."  ^ 

We  are  brought  through  these  considerations  to 
a  most  obvious,  yet  a  most  challenging  and 
humbling  conclusion.  "Not  even  now,"  said 
^  "  Areopagitica,"  ed.  Hales,  1909,  p.  38. 


THE  PRACTICABILITY   OF   THE   CHRISTIAN   LIFE      35 

John  Stuart  Mill,  "would  it  be  easy,  even  for 
an  unbeliever,  to  find  a  better  translation  of  the 
rule  of  virtue  from  the  abstract  into  the  concrete 
than  to  endeavour  so  to  live  that  Christ  would  ap- 
prove our  Hfe."^  Do  not  these  reverent  words 
disclose  the  nature  of  Christian  ethics  and  the 
permanent  practicabihty  of  the  Christian  life? 
It  is  a  "  translation  from  the  abstract  into  the  con-  I 
Crete " ;  the  acceptance,  not  of  a  teaching,  but  | 
of  a  teacher ;  not  of  a  word  recorded  in  documents,  ( 
but  of  a  word  made  flesh.  The  characteristic  \ 
mark  of  the  Christian  Ufe  is  this  personal  relation-  i 
ship.  It  is  the  intimacy  of  companionship,  the 
loyalty  of  discipleship.  Behind  all  the  teachings 
of  Jesus  Christ  concerning  problems  of  God  and 
man,  of  eschatology  or  ethics,  lies  his  supreme 
concern  for  the  individual  life  to  which  he  may 
give  power;  and  behind  all  questions  which  the 
study  of  the  Gospels  may  raise  concerning  the 
universe  or  the  social  order  lies  the  response  of 
the  individual  will  to  the  summons  of  a  Master, 
who  translates  the  rule  of  virtue  from  the  abstract 
into  the  concrete.  This  relation  of  character  to 
character  emancipates  the  modern  Christian  from 
all  that  is  contemporary  or  incidental  in  the  teach- 
ing of  Jesus.  One  does  not  expect  a  teacher  of 
another  age  to  speak  the  language  or  answer  all 
the  problems  of  the  modem  world.  His  message 
must  be  given  to  his  own  time  and  colored  by  the 

*"  Three  Essays  on  Religion,"  1874,  p.  255. 


36      THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

habits  of  thought  which  then  prevailed.  But  the 
teacher  behind  the  teaching,  the  influences  which 
he  described  as  those  of  Power  and  Life,  remain 
independent  of  historical  conditions  and  are  ap- 
plicable to  all  ages.  Personality,  character,  spiritu- 
aUty,  ideaHsm,  vision,  communion  with  God,  have 
in  them  a  quality  of  timelessness,  and  are  capable 
of  expansion,  transmission,  and  utilization  in  all 
the  varied  conditions  of  a  changing  world.  The 
problems  of  life  shift  with  the  passing  years,  but 
the  nature  of  life  remains  unchanged,  and  responds 
to  the  Life  which  is  the  light  of  men.  On  these 
terms,  and  on  these  alone,  the  Christian  Ufe  be- 
comes practicable  in  the  modern  world.  The 
machinery  of  civilization  must  be  renewed  and 
ampHfied  with  each  generation ;  but  the  power 
which  makes  that  machinery  move  towards  spirit- 
ual ends  remains  the  same  as  in  the  ancient  days 
when  the  multitude  glorified  God  who  had  given 
such  Power  unto  men.  The  machinery  halts 
till  the  power  is  appHed,  and  as  that  power  finds 
its  way,  like  the  mysterious  force  of  electricity, 
along  all  the  avenues  of  Ufe,  and  enters  the  homes 
and  work  and  darkness  and  cold  of  the  modern 
world,  the  question  of  the  practicabiUty  of  the 
Christian  Hfe  is  supplanted  by  the  question  of  its 
utilization;  and  it  is  as  though  the  wires  which 
carry  the  Power  sang  above  our  heads,  "I  am 
come  that  they  might  have  Life,  and  that  they 
might  have  it  more  abundantiy." 


n 

THE    CHRISTIAN    LIFE    AND    THE    MODERN    FAMILY 

The  general  conclusions  which  have  been  reached 
concerning  the  practicabihty  of  the  Christian  life 
open  the  way  to  the  consideration  of  more  limited 
and  definite  problems.  As  one  surveys  his  relation 
to  the  modem  world,  he  finds  its  various  interests 
surrounding  him  hke  a  series  of  concentric  circles, 
of  which,  in  the  interpretation  of  his  own  experience, 
he  is  the  centre.  Nearest  him,  and  with  the 
shortest  radius  of  social  responsibility,  is  the  group 
of  the  family.  It  is  the  elementary  expression  of 
social  relationship,  the  innermost  circle  of  social 
experience,  into  which  by  the  very  conditions  of 
human  birth  and  training  he  enters.  Outside  the 
circle  of  the  family,  but  concentric  with  it,  is  the 
sphere  of  the  industrial  order,  with  its  new  forms 
of  combination  and  competition,  and  its  conflict 
of  self-interest  with  the  demands  of  the  common 
good.  Still  larger  in  its  sweep,  and  holding  the 
family  and  the  business  world  within  itself,  is 
the  circle  of  the  State,  with  its  many  unsolved 
problems  of  national  politics  and  international 
peace.  Still  more  inclusive,  and,  to  the  Christian, 
all-comprehending,  is  the  circle  of  the  Christian 
Church,  with  its  schemes  of  universal  evangeliza- 

37 


38      THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

tion  and  its  dreams  of  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom 
of  God.  Out  along  these  radii  moves  the  Christian 
life,  and  as  it  reaches  each  circle  in  succession  it  is 
met  by  the  problem  of  adjustment  between  its 
religious  ideals  and  the  inexorable  conditions  of 
the  modem  world.  On  what  terms,  and  within 
what  limits,  can  the  Christian  life  still  be  per- 
petuated in  the  family,  in  business,  in  the  State, 
and  in  the  Church?  Must  family  Ufe,  imder  the 
inevitable  conditions  of  modem  society,  either 
frankly  abandon  or  unconsciously  outgrow  the 
principles  of  Christian  discipleship,  and  adjust 
itself  to  new  standards  of  obligation  or  desire ; 
or  is  it  possible,  even  in  a  social  atmosphere  poisoned 
by  selfishness  and  worldliness,  to  maintain  the 
Christian  Ufe  in  a  modern  home  ?  Is  the  business 
world  to-day  irretrievably  involved  in  a  debasing 
commercialism,  so  that,  as  has  been  said,  "Our 
industrial  order  is  the  disordering  of  nature,  a 
profane  traffic  in  human  flesh  and  blood"  ;^  or 
is  there,  even  in  an  economic  world  so  manifestly 
imperfect,  a  place  for  the  Christian  life  in  business, 
and  a  redemptive  work  for  it  to  do  ?  Are  national 
politics  and  international  negotiations  hopelessly 
committed  to  partisanship  in  legislation,  intrigue 
in  diplomacy,  and  the  tragedy  of  war,  or  is  there  a 
place  in  modem  politics  for  statesmen  who  are 
idealists,  and  for  diplomatists  whose  weapons  are 
candor,  justice,  and  the  desire  for  equitable  peace  ? 
^  G.  D.  Herron,  "The  New  Redemption,"  1893,  PP-  29,  64. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  MODERN  FAMILY      39 

And,  finally,  as  the  most  humbling  question  of 
all,  does  the  Christian  Church,  in  its  prevailing 
practices  and  conspicuous  undertakings,  provide 
an  unobstructed  channel  for  the  stream  of  the 
religious  life ;  or  does  organized  Christianity  often 
divert  that  living  stream  from  its  natural  course,  and 
sweep  it  into  eddies  of  turbulent  controversy  and 
shoals  of  arid  conformity,  where  the  Christian 
life  is  obstructed  in  its  fertilizing  flow  ? 

These  are  not  remote  or  abstract  questions  which 
concern  theologians  or  philosophers  alone.  They 
are  practical  problems  which  multitudes  of  thought- 
ful people  find  it  essential  for  their  peace  of  mind 
to  meet.  They  want  to  be  Christians,  but  they 
still  more  seriously  want  to  be  consistent  and 
sincere.  Whatever  other  rebukes  of  Jesus  Christ 
they  may  deserve,  they  wish  to  escape  his  "Woe 
unto  you,  hypocrites!"  Many  modern  teachers 
tell  them  that  their  homes  are  economic  ventures 
built  on  the  sands  of  shifting  desire ;  that  business 
is  a  form  of  warfare  and  piracy,  where  the  unscru- 
pulous win  and  the  honorable  lose ;  that  pohtics 
is  an  instrument  of  personal  ambition  and  organized 
greed ;  and  that  the  Church  is  a  refuge  of  mediae- 
valists  or  a  club  of  capitalists.  What  reassurance 
may  they  gain  by  a  reconsideration  of  the  teaching 
of  Jesus  Christ?  What  justification  is  left  for 
their  Christian  idealism  under  the  conditions  of 
the  modem  world?  Is  the  Christian  life  practi- 
cable now  ?    Must  the  home  be  paganized,  or  may 


40     THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE   IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

it  be  Christianized  ?  Must  business  be  brutalized, 
or  may  it  be  spiritualized?  Does  modern  states- 
manship offer  a  field  for  Christian  idealists?  Is 
the  Christian  Church  a  fertile  or  a  sterile  soil  for 
the  Christian  life  ?  These  are  the  questions  which 
may  now  be  briefly  considered. 

The  first  test  which  thus  confronts  the  Christian 
life  is  in  that  inner  circle  which  is  created  by  the 
organization  and  maintenance  of  a  family;  and 
this  test  has  become,  under  the  conditions  of  modem 
civilization,  by  no  means  easy  to  accept.  Domestic 
life  has  grown  unprecedentedly  shifting  and  un- 
stable. The  institution  of  the  family  is  threatened 
on  two  sides,  —  on  the  one  hand  by  those  who 
abuse  it,  and  on  the  other  hand  by  those  who 
abandon  it;  by  degradation  of  its  purpose,  and 
by  emancipation  from  its  bonds;  by  undertaking 
it  as  a  commercial  speculation,  and  by  breaking 
it  as  a  temporary  contract.  The  number  of 
divorces  annually  granted  in  the  United  States 
is  increasing,  not  only  at  a  rate  unequalled  in  any 
other  country,  but  also  at  a  steadily  advancing 
rate.  Between  1870  and  1905  the  population  of 
the  country  doubled,  while  the  divorce  movement 
increased  sixfold.  In  1870  the  proportion  of 
divorces  for  each  hundred  thousand  of  the  popula- 
tion was  28;  in  1900  it  was  73.  Between  1870 
and  1900  the  married  population  of  the  United 
States  about  doubled,  but  divorces  increased  five- 
fold.   In  1870  there  were  thirty- three  marriages 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  MODERN  FAMILY      4 1 

to  one  divorce;  in  1880  there  were  twen ty- three ; 
and,  according  to  the  National  Bureau  of  Statistics 
and  Labor,  "  at  the  present  time  [1909]  the  chances 
are  that  not  less  than  one  marriage  in  sixteen  will 
be  ultimately  dissolved  by  divorce,  and  it  seems 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  ratio  is  nearer  one 
to  twelve."  ^ 

It  is  still  further  maintained  by  many  advocates 
of  social  revolution  —  and  with  increasing  candor 
and  confidence  —  that  this  movement  toward 
instability  in  the  family  is  not  only  inevitable, 
but  desirable.  The  family,  it  is  taught,  has  had 
its  period  of  development  and  dominance,  and  is 
now  passing  to  its  era  of  decline.  As  a  social 
institution  it  has  been  a  symbol  of  private  property, 
and  with  the  overthrow  of  capitalism  the  relations 
of  the  family  will  acquire  new  flexibility  and  free- 
dom. The  economics  of  social  revolution  will 
both  promote  and  require  a  new  status  for  woman, 
and  the  economic  independence  she  will  thus  attain 
will,  it  is  said,  "undermine  or  convert  marriage 
sanctions  or  laws."  "The  family  of  the  private 
individual,"  Mr.  H.  G.  Wells  with  entire  frankness 
announces,  "must  vanish."  "The  sociahst  no 
more  regards  the  institution  of  the  family  as  a 
permanent  thing  than  he  regards  a  State  or  com- 
petitive  industrialism   as   a   permanent   thing."  ^ 

^"Special  Report  on  Marriage  and  Divorce,"  1909,  Part  I, 
p.  22. 

*  "Socialism  and  the  Family,"  1908,  pp.  32,  39. 


42      THE   CHRISTIAN   LIFE   IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

"Marriage  and  the  family  are  perennially  fluctu- 
ating institutions  and  probably  scarcely  anything 
in  modern  life  has  changed  and  is  changing  so 
much."  ^  "Woman,"  the  leader  of  the  German 
Social  Democracy  wrote,  "is  to  be  both  socially 
and  industrially  absolutely  independent.  She  is 
to  be  subjected  to  no  semblance  of  ownership  or 
exploitation,  but  to  stand  over  against  man,  free 
and  equal,  the  mistress  of  her  fate."  ^ 

Facts  and  teachings  like  these  reopen  the  ques- 
tion of  the  practicability  of  the  Christian  family. 
Is  the  ideal  which  the  Christian  tradition  has  per- 
petuated to  be  regarded  as  anything  more  than 
the  survival  of  a  beautiful  but  outgrown  faith? 
Must  one  not  adjust  himself  to  a  new  world  where 
domestic  relations  shall  be  loose  and  domestic 
affections  transitory?  Will  not  the  economic 
changes  of  the  future  involve  a  new  attitude  tow- 
ard domestic  duty  and  maternity?  "Economic 
independence,"  an  English  scholar  has  said,  "is 
essential  to  all  humans.  .  .  .  The  current  type 
of  sex-relationship  which  confines  the  wife  to  the 
house  is  inconsistent  with  this  economic  indepen- 
dence and  therefore  is  a  type  destined  to  extinc- 
tion." '  The  consequences  which  this  view  in- 
volves concerning  children  are  not  evaded.  "When 
sex-relationship    results    in    children,"    the    same 

^  "First  and  Last  Things,"  1908,  p.  211. 

*  A.  Bebel,  "Die  Frau  und  der  Sozialismus,"  lote  Aufl.,  1891, 

s-  337- 

»  Karl  Pearson,  "The  Ethic  of  Free  Thought,"  1888,  p.  437. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  MODERN  FAMILY      43 

writer  proceeds,  "the  State  will  have  a  right  to 
interfere.  ...  On  an  average  three  births  to  a 
woman  has  been  found  sufficient  at  any  epoch  to 
maintain  the  limit  of  efficient  population.  .  .  . 
A  birth  beyond  the  sanctioned  number  would 
receive  no  recognition  from  the  State."  In  short, 
the  institution  of  the  family  would  be  maintained 
with  the  same  impersonal  and  scientij&c  regulations 
which  govern  a  well-conducted  stock-farm. 

How  far,  then,  is  this  ehmination  of  human 
affinity  and  permanent  unity  to  go  ?  Is  the  family 
to  be  merged  in  the  larger  unity  of  the  State,  and 
what  is  called  the  "  exclusiveness "  of  marital  rela- 
tions subordinated  to  the  interests  of  communal 
welfare?  In  a  remarkable  book,  written  by  an 
Englishman  in  German,  and  but  tardily  translated 
into  English,  the  author  expresses  the  opinion  that 
the  difference  between  Greek  and  Roman  influence 
upon  social  history  and  institutions  may  be  traced 
to  different  estimates  of  the  institution  of  the 
family.  "The  Romans  based  their  State,"  he 
says,  "and  its  law  on  the  family" ;  the  Greek,  on 
the  other  hand,  "took  as  his  starting-point  the 
State,  his  ideal  being  always  the  organization  of 
the  'Polls.'"  While  Greece,  therefore,  was  in- 
comparably superior  to  Rome  in  creative  imagina- 
tion and  philosophical  thought,  she  "shared  in 
the  great  civihzing  work  of  the  perfection  of  law 
solely  through  the  medium  of  the  Roman."  "The 
family  became  in  Rome  a  firm,  indissoluble  imit, 


44      THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

and  it  is  essentially  to  this  that  we  are  indebted 
for  the  particular  form  of  the  Roman  State  and 
Roman  law."  ^  In  the  light  of  such  historical 
suggestions  what  is  likely  to  be  the  future  of 
civilization?  Is  the  unity  of  the  family  which 
made  Rome  strong  to  be  surrendered  to  the  domi- 
nation of  the  State  which  left  Greece  weak  ?  Can 
the  Christian  ideal  of  the  family  maintain  itself 
imder  the  conditions  of  the  modem  world  ?  What 
is  the  Christian  doctrine  of  the  family?  These 
questions  cannot  be  answered  by  multiplying  legal 
restrictions  or  ecclesiastical  regulations.  They 
are  not  primarily  concerned  with  courts  of  divorce 
or  conventions  of  Churches.  What  is  at  stake  is 
the  very  existence  of  a  social  institution  which 
through  the  ages  of  human  evolution  has  been  the 
unit  of  civilization.  On  what  terms,  one  must 
ask,  can  the  family  survive,  and  what  contribution 
to  its  survival  is  to  be  made  by  the  traditions  and 
ideals  of  the  Christian  life? 

When  one  turns  with  these  questions  to  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  Christ,  he  is  at  once  impressed 
by  the  central  position  assigned  in  that  teaching 
to  the  institution  of  the  family.  Jesus,  through- 
out his  public  career,  was  singularly  homeless. 
"The  Son  of  man  hath  not  where  to  lay  his  head." 
His  own  family  seem  to  have  been  actively  con- 

^  Houston  Chamberlain,  "  Grundlagen  des  neunzehnten  Jahr- 
hunderts,"  ite  Aufl.,  1898;  "The  Foundations  of  the  Nineteenth 
Century,"  191 2,  pp.  158,  119. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  MODERN  FAMILY      45 

cemed  to  deter  him  from  his  mission,  and  with 
the  most  touching  solitariness  of  spirit  he  "  stretched 
forth  his  hand  toward  his  disciples  and  said,  'Be- 
hold, my  mother  and  my  brethren!'"  Yet  the 
religion  of  this  homeless  teacher  was,  in  its  char- 
acter and  symbolism,  a  religion  of  the  home. 
God  was  a  father;  man  was  his  child;  and  the 
communion  of  man  with  God  was  the  intimacy 
of  child  with  parent.  The  self-reproach  of  sin 
was  nothing  else  than  homesickness ;  and  the  first 
utterance  of  a  repentant  life  was :  "I  will  arise  and 
go  to  my  father."  The  homeless  Jesus  entered 
with  equal  sympathy  the  homes  of  the  humble 
and  of  the  prosperous.  He  came  "into  Peter's 
house";  "into  the  ruler's  house";  "into  the 
Pharisee's  house  and  sat  down  to  meat."  In  the 
quiet  household  at  Bethany  he  welcomed  the 
symbolism  of  sacrifice;  and  to  the  rich  Zaccheus 
he  said:  "This  day  is  salvation  come  to  this 
house."  "Go  home  to  thy  friends,"  he  tenderly 
says  to  the  man  from  whom  the  demon  had  de- 
parted. "In  the  same  house  remain,"  he  bids 
his  disciples;  "Go  not  from  house  to  house." 
The  parables  of  Jesus  also  are,  for  the  most  part, 
stories  of  home.  The  shepherd  lays  the  lost  sheep 
on  his  shoulder  and  brings  it  home;  the  woman 
sweeps  her  house  to  find  the  lost  coin ;  and  the 
joy  with  which  she  calls  her  friends  and  neighbors 
together  is  like  that  "of  the  angels  of  God  over  one 
sinner  that  repenteth." 


46     THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

This  acceptance  of  the  family  as  the  type  of 
God's  Kingdom  becomes  still  more  impressive 
when  one  recalls  the  affection  of  the  childless  Jesus 
for  little  children.  In  these  unspoiled  hearts  he 
found  the  perfect  expression  of  discipleship.  When 
the  disciples  asked:  "Who  is  the  greatest  in  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven?"  the  teacher  called  a  little 
child  and  set  him  in  the  midst  of  them,  and  said, 
"Except  ye  be  converted  and  become  as  little  chil- 
dren, ye  shall  not  enter  into  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven."  And,  again,  when  they  brought  young 
children  to  him  for  his  blessing,  he  said :  "Whoso- 
ever shall  not  receive  the  Kingdom  of  God  as  a 
little  child,  he  shall  not  enter  therein."  He  took 
the  children  on  his  knees  and  caressed  them ;  or, 
as  the  passage  has  been  suggestively  translated: 
"  He  took  them  in  his  arms  and  blessed  them 
lovingly,  one  by  one."  ^  He  watched  them  as 
they  played  together,  and  made  of  their  little 
games  a  text  for  his  great  discourse.  "Where- 
imto  shall  I  liken  the  men  of  this  generation? 
They  are  like  unto  children  sitting  in  the  market- 
place and  calling  one  to  another  and  sa5dng :  *  We 
have  piped  unto  you  and  ye  have  not  danced ; 
we  have  mourned  to  you  and  ye  have  not 
wept  ? ' "  Thus  the  teaching  of  Jesus  is  es- 
sentially domestic.  His  theology  is  parental; 
his  sociology  is  fraternal.     The  whole  of  human 

*  Mark  X,  i6;  in  WQmaouth,  "The  New  Testament  in  Mod- 
ern Speech,"  1902. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  MODERN  FAMILY      47 

experience  is,  in  his  mind,  covered  by  the  relations 
of  the  family.  To  the  disciple  of  Jesus  the  world 
becomes  a  home,  where  a  Father's  love  is  the 
assurance  of  social  stability  and  a  child's  obedience 
is  the  condition  of  spiritual  peace.  Here  is  the 
foundation  of  Christian  ethics.  Whatever  larger 
opportunities  and  obhgations  may  meet  one  in 
larger  circles  of  social  Hfe,  they  are  all  to  be  in- 
terpreted in  terms  of  the  home.  The  Kingdom 
of  God  for  which  Christians  pray  is  but  the  ex- 
pansion of  the  family  into  a  world  of  unconstrained 
and  personal  love. 

When  one  turns,  however,  from  this  explicit 
teaching  to  the  history  of  Christian  conduct,  he  is 
confronted  by  an  abrupt  change  of  opinion,  even 
within  the  Christian  Church  itself,  concerning  the 
institution  of  the  family.  The  life  of  the  home 
soon  becomes  relegated  to  a  subordinate  and 
merely  tolerated  place  in  Christian  society.  The 
higher  Ufe,  the  vita  religiosa,  is  attainable  by  celi- 
bates only;  and  the  family  becomes  regarded 
as  a  concession  to  the  frailty  of  the  flesh. 
Chastity  is  joined  with  poverty  and  obedience 
as  a  mark  of  Christian  consecration.  A  man 
and  woman  rearing  their  children,  however  de- 
voted and  affectionate  they  may  be,  are  from 
this  point  of  view  engaged  in  a  less  meritorious 
enterprise  than  a  monk  or  nun  who  has  abandoned 
the  responsibilities  of  a  home  to  serve  the  cause  of 
Christ.     Oriental   asceticism   thus   came   to   sup- 


48      THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

plant  family  affection  as  the  ideal  of  Christian 
conduct ;  and  the  life  of  the  home  became  regarded 
as  a  bondage  of  the  spirit  from  which  a  Christian, 
if  he  would  be  perfect,  must  at  any  cost  tear  him- 
self free. 

The  most  immediate  consequence  of  this 
depreciation  of  the  family  was  soon  reached  in 
the  doctrine  of  the  virgin-birth  of  Jesus,  reenforced 
eighteen  centuries  later  by  the  further  dogma  of 
the  virgin-birth  of  the  Virgin  herself,  so  that  a 
miraculous  spotlessness  was  secured  for  two  genera- 
tions. Quite  apart  from  the  problems  of  New 
Testament  criticism  involved,  —  the  omission 
of  the  story  by  two  Evangelists,  the  diversity 
of  account  in  the  other  two,  the  admission  of 
Joseph's  dream  as  convincing  evidence,  the 
acceptance  of  Isaiah's  assurance  to  Ahaz  as  a 
prophecy  fulfilled  after  seven  hundred  years  ;^ 
not  to  speak  of  the  artless  claim,  with  which  the 
New  Testament  begins,  that  Jesus  was  the  son  of 
David  and  Abraham  through  "  Joseph,  the  husband 
of  Mary" ;  —  the  story  has  proved  peculiarly  unac- 
ceptable to  great  numbers  of  devoted  Christians 
because  of  its  apparent  indictment  of  married  life  as 
unsanctified  and  impure.  A  child  born  in  wedlock, 
it  seems  to  teach,  cannot  be  perfectly  holy.  The 
relations  of  the  flesh  stain  the  whiteness  of  the 
soul.  To  be  immaculate  one  must  be  de-human- 
ized. The  logical  corollary  of  the  dogma  of  the 
Us.  VII,  14;  Matt.  I,  23. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  MODERN  FAMILY      49 

immaculate  conception  is  reached  in  the  monastic 
system  and  the  rule  of  a  celibate  priesthood.  Yet 
nothing  can  be  more  remote  from  such  a  teaching 
than  the  spirit  of  the  Gospels.  Not  without  the 
friction  and  discipline  of  family  hfe,  but  through 
them,  the  Christian  character,  according  to  the 
teaching  of  Jesus,  gets  momentum  and  effective- 
ness. Not  by  retreat  from  the  normal  conditions 
of  life,  but  by  converting  those  conditions  into 
instruments  of  spiritual  education,  the  way  of 
discipleship  is  found.  Jesus  takes  the  world  as 
it  is  and  makes  it  the  material  out  of  which  the 
better  world  may  be  framed.  He  asks  of  his 
followers,  not  first  of  all  a  change  of  circumstances, 
but  first  of  all  a  change  of  heart.  The  institution 
of  the  family  may,  if  abused,  be  a  peril  to  the 
flesh  and  a  slavery  of  the  will ;  but  accepted  and 
utilized  as  Christian  consecration  demands,  it 
becomes,  both  in  form  and  spirit,  the  very  symbol 
of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

Dismissing,  therefore,  from  consideration  the 
ecclesiastical  reaction  from  the  ideal  of  the  family, 
there  remains  the  practical  question  of  adjusting 
this  normal  way  of  Hfe  to  the  necessary  conditions 
of  the  modem  world.  How  shall  a  young  life, 
inextricably  involved  as  it  must  be  in  the  habits 
and  demands  of  the  existing  social  order,  approach 
the  problem  of  marriage?  What  considerations, 
drawn  either  from  science  or  from  experience, 
should  modify  or  fortify  one's  affection  or  desire  ? 


50      THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

In  the  great  summary  of  the  Law  and  Prophets 
which  Jesus  draws  from  the  earlier  Scriptures,  it 
is  written  that  one  should  love  God,  not  only  with 
the  heart  and  soul,  but  also  with  the  mind.  Is  it, 
then,  possible  to  apply  to  the  instinct  of  love  the 
rule  of  reason?  Can  rational  principles  be  in- 
dicated for  the  guidance  of  love  ?  Must  the  family, 
because  it  is  based  on  love,  be  left  to  the  control 
of  accident  or  passing  whim  or  fleshly  passion ; 
or  may  one  love,  not  only  with  the  heart  and  soul, 
but  also  with  the  mind  ? 

These  questions  must,  of  course,  meet 
very  varied  answers  under  different  circum- 
stances of  modem  life.  One  set  of  temptations 
to  domestic  instability  is  provided  by  con- 
ditions of  poverty,  and  another  by  conditions  of 
luxury.  Congested  living,  economic  want,  igno- 
rance and  thriftlessness  threaten  the  homes  of  the 
humble;  overstrained  nerves,  economic  excess, 
social  ambition  and  vulgar  ostentation  attack  the 
domestic  unity  of  the  privileged.  Both  of  these 
extremes  of  condition  lie,  however,  along  the  mar- 
gins of  American  civilization.  No  picture  of 
social  life  in  the  United  States  could  be  more  dis- 
torted than  to  fancy  it  completely  given  over  to 
domestic  dissensions  and  the  scandals  of  divorce. 
The  great  proportion  of  homes  are,  on  the  contrary, 
unscathed  by  these  disasters,  and  unaffected,  ex- 
cept with  curiosity,  by  the  pathological  symptoms 
which    the    newspapers   so   industriously   record. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  MODERN  FAMILY      5 1 

Such  families  occupy  neither  slums  nor  palaces, 
and  are  comparatively  free  from  the  temptations 
both  of  destitution  and  of  prodigahty.  They 
have  been  fitly  called  "the  forgotten  milhons," 
the  unobserved  yet  overwhelming  majority  of 
self-respecting  and  self-supporting  lives.  Even 
if  one  accept  the  shocking  statistics  of  divorce, 
it  remains  true  that  twelve  to  fifteen  families 
maintain  stability  where  one  suffers  disruption. 
A  social  disease,  even  though  it  be  serious  and  in- 
fectious, should  not  be  permitted  to  create  a  panic 
when  ninety-two  homes  in  every  hundred  are 
comparatively  immune.  It  is  sufficient,  therefore, 
for  the  present  purpose  to  consider  the  case  of 
the  normal  and  healthy-minded  American  home. 
What  are  the  hindrances  to  domestic  happiness 
which  such  a  typical  family  is  likely  to  meet? 
How  shall  the  Christianization  of  such  homes  be 
promoted  and  secured?  What  is  the  history  of 
a  normal  modern  family,  from  its  formation  to 
the  end  of  its  course  ? 

At  the  threshold  of  such  a  history  one  is  met, 
first  of  all,  by  the  problem  of  the  family  as  a  physical 
creation,  and  the  obUgation  to  take  account  of 
the  physical  conditions  which  may  promote  or 
obstruct  its  welfare.  One  often  hears  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  ceremony  of  marriage  a  solemn 
exhortation  that  the  union  shall  not  be  "lightly 
or  unadvisedly  enterprised  or  taken  in  hand"; 
but  when  one  recalls  the  thoughtless  levity  and 


52      THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE   IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

even  the  criminal  recklessness  with  which  the  new 
relations  are  often  assumed,  it  may  well  seem 
as  if  a  note  of  irony  might  sometimes  be  heard  in 
the  succeeding  phrase :  "but  reverently,  discreetly, 
soberly,  and  in  the  fear  of  God."  Much  apprehen- 
sion has  of  late  been  expressed  because  so  many 
young  persons,  from  motives  either  of  self-interest 
or  professional  ambition,  are  inclined  to  postpone 
the  thought  of  marriage :  but  a  not  less  justifiable 
apprehension  may  be  felt  when  one  observes  how 
many  young  people  commit  themselves  to  com- 
panionship in  marriage  with  little  more  reflection 
than  to  partnership  in  a  dance,  and  either  ignorantly 
or  carelessly  defy  every  principle  of  physical  dis- 
cretion. It  has  been  demonstrated  that  a  decreas- 
ing number  of  children  in  many  families  threatens 
the  race-suicide  of  desirable  stocks ;  but  it  is  not 
less  obvious  that  a  still  more  perilous  race-degen- 
eration threatens  many  family  stocks  through  dis- 
regard of  well-known  physical  laws.  There  are 
many  famiUes  where  domestic  happiness  is  blighted 
by  the  evasion  of  child-bearing  :  but  there  are  also 
many  famiUes  where  children  ought  not  to  have 
been  bom  at  all.  One  escape  from  race-suicide 
may,  therefore,  be  found  in  multiplying  the  popu- 
lation without  regard  to  quaHty;  but  a  more  ef- 
fective escape  would  be  found  by  selecting  and 
propagating  those  quahties  which  are  physically 
and  morally  fit  to  survive.  In  other  words,  young 
persons  who  propose  to  estabHsh  a  Christian  family 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  MODERN  FAMILY      53 

in  the  modern  world  are  called  upon  to  consider 
with  a  new  degree  of  candor  and  gravity  some  of 
the  solemn  facts  which  have  created  the  new  science 
of  Eugenics,  or  the  promotion  of  sound  family  stocks. 
To  link  unchastity  with  chastity,  to  blight  inno- 
cent lives  by  inherited  taints,  to  multiply  perilous 
tendencies  by  an  inbreeding  which  would  be  pro- 
hibited even  in  a  stable,  to  beget  children  fore- 
ordained to  be  crippled  or  defective,  —  all  this  is 
not  only  short-sighted,  cruel,  and  productive  of 
the  bitterest  self-reproach,  but  it  is  not  less  dis- 
loyal to  every  profession  of  discipleship  to  him 
who  found  in  healthy  and  happy  childhood  the 
type  of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

Eugenics,  like  all  new  sciences,  tempts  its  advo- 
cates to  claims  which  are  extravagant,  and  to  pre- 
ventive or  protective  measures  which  may  be 
inexpedient,  but  the  general  conclusions  now  reached 
concerning  the  physical  conditions  of  desirable  mar- 
riage are  beyond  dispute.  No  intelligent  person 
can  remain  unaware  of  the  devastating  consequences 
of  certain  diseases,  and  their  effects  in  steriUty, 
mental  disturbance,  and  paralysis.  The  existence 
of  such  diseases  in  an  active  stage  should  be  an  ab- 
solute bar  to  marriage;  and  even  in  the  latent 
period,  while  marriage  may  under  certain  conditions 
be  permissible,  the  fact  of  infection  and  the  possi- 
bilities involved  should  be  known  to  the  contracting 
parties,  and  the  conduct  of  life  controlled  by  this 
hereditary  peril  as  distinctly  as  in  cases  where 


54      THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

susceptibility  to  tuberculosis  or  to  intemperance 
exists.  In  well-conducted  life-insurance  com- 
panies these  diseases  are  regarded  either  as  pro- 
hibiting insurance,  or  as  greatly  increasing  its 
risk ;  and  the  pretence  of  consecrating  as  Christian 
marriage  what  is  in  fact  and  with  terrific  certainty 
the  beginning  of  physical  misery  and  transmitted 
taint,  is  as  grim  a  mockery  of  religious  sanctions 
as  the  sight  of  Mephistopheles  kneeling  by  the 
church  porch.  Nor  can  these  rational  considera- 
tions of  physical  welfare  be  safely  postponed 
until  the  moment  of  decision  arrives.  To  be 
effective  at  this  point  they  must  have  become  a 
habit  of  mind  acquired  by  early  training  and  in 
the  confidential  intimacy  of  a  candid  and  loving 
home.  The  physical  conditions  of  a  happy  mar- 
riage must  have  been  learned,  not  from  the  base 
allusions  of  the  street,  but  from  the  lips  of  parents, 
teaching  by  example  even  more  than  by  precept, 
what  happiness  a  union  of  healthy  bodies  and  loving 
minds  may  attain. 

Approaching  thus  the  creation  of  a  family,  the 
disciple  of  Jesus  Christ  is  next  confronted  by  the 
teaching  of  the  Gospels  concerning  the  perpetuity 
and  indissolubility  of  the  marriage  tie.  "They 
twain,"  said  Jesus,  quoting  from  the  Book  of 
Genesis,  "shall  be  one  flesh."  With  a  reiteration 
imparalleled  in  the  case  of  any  other  social  problem, 
his  doctrine  of  the  family  is  set  forth  in  all  three 
of  the  Synoptic  Gospels  and  leaves  little  doubt 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  MODERN  FAMILY      55 

concerning  his  special  apprehension  and  desire. 
It  is,  therefore,  a  most  curious  fact  that  the  atten- 
tion of  scholars  has  been  for  the  most  part  devoted, 
not  to  that  teaching  in  which  all  the  Gospels 
coincide,  but  to  the  divergencies  which  may  be 
discovered  among  them.  The  first  Gospel,  in  its 
reference  to  divorce,  inserts  an  exceptive  clause : 
"Saving  for  the  cause  of  fornication";  the  two 
other  Gospels  omit  even  this  permissive  clause. 
The  problem  thus  presented,  of  marriage  as  in- 
dissoluble or  as  terminable  for  a  single  cause,  has 
been  hotly  debated  by  ecclesiastics  and  theologians. 
This  problem,  however,  which  is  perhaps  by 
the  very  nature  of  the  evidence  incapable  of  an 
absolute  reply,  has  obscured  the  more  fundamental 
purpose  of  the  teaching.  Jesus  was  not  primarily 
dealing  with  the  wreckage  of  domestic  Hfe  and 
inquiring  how  it  could  be  patched  together,  as 
though  the  first  question  in  contracting  marriage 
should  be  that  of  the  terms  of  possible  divorce. 
He  was  speaking  of  normal  human  lives,  and  the 
temptations  and  sins  which  most  easily  beset  them ; 
and  he  observed  the  invasion  of  the  family  by  il- 
legitimate and  seductive  affections,  which  subor- 
dinate unity  to  the  vacillations  of  fleshly  desire. 
It  was  the  spiritualizing  of  the  union  quite  as  much 
as  its  legalizing  which  he  had  in  mind.  Unregu- 
lated and  wandering  impulses  seemed  to  him  a 
primary  cause  of  the  rupture  of  marriage.  With 
a  definiteness,  therefore,  which  made  its  mark  on 


56      THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

all  three  of  the  Gospel  records,  he  dealt,  not  merely 
with  the  question  of  separation,  but  also  with  that 
of  remarriage.  "Whosoever  shall  put  away  his 
wife  and  shall  marry  another,"  say  all  the  passages. 
Alienation  of  affection,  he  knew,  is  chiefly  pro- 
moted by  the  assurance  that  it  involves  no  per- 
manent penalty,  so  that  remarriage  becomes  easier 
than  restraint.  His  doctrine  of  the  family, 
therefore,  —  and  it  is  certainly  a  severe  and  dis- 
ciplinary doctrine,  —  is  one  of  permanence.  Young 
people  may  not  enter  the  union  experimentally 
or  temporarily,  assuming  that  the  way  out  is  as 
easy  as  the  way  in.  When  the  inevitable  tests  of 
temper  or  disposition  arrive  after  marriage,  they 
are  not  to  be  regarded  as  suggesting  dissolution, 
but  on  the  contrary  as  compelKng  considerateness 
and  self-control.  One  does  not  put  away  his 
mother  or  his  children  because  of  domestic  differ- 
ences, but,  even  when  grave  differences  of  taste 
or  temperament  exist,  assumes  the  relationship 
to  be  permanent  and  adjusts  himself  to  it  as  best 
he  can ;  and  in  the  vast  majority  of  instances  the 
necessity  for  adjustment  promotes  permanent 
affection.  It  is  the  same  with  a  husband  and  wife. 
Nomadic  and  shifting  desires  are  to  be  sternly 
excluded  when  one  enters  into  the  relations  of  a 
family.  "Whosoever  looketh  on  a  woman  to  lust 
after  her  hath  committed  adultery  with  her  al- 
ready in  his  heart." 
The   family  thus   becomes,  not   a   temporary 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  MODERN  FAMILY      57 

resort  for  the  satisfaction  of  passion,  or  a  form 
of  restraint  from  which  on  the  least  provo- 
cation one  may  escape,  and,  as  the  Gospel  says, 
"put  away  his  wife  and  marry  another,"  but  a 
school  of  character,  where  the  capacity  for  ripening 
affection  is  trained  and  ampHfied  by  the  sense  of 
continuity  and  permanence.  The  first  concern 
of  the  disciple  of  Jesus  Christ  in  considering  the 
problem  of  marriage  is  not,  as  some  of  the  discussions 
of  the  present  time  seem  to  suggest,  an  estimate  of 
the  chances  of  being  free.  The  Christian  doctrine 
of  marriage  is  not  based  on  refinements  of  exegesis, 
or  on  the  authority  of  an  exceptive  clause.  These 
debates  of  scholars  concerning  stringency  or  evasion 
speak  a  foreign  language  to  normal  and  unspoiled 
young  people  who  have  come  to  love  each  other 
and  want  to  share  each  others'  fives.  They  do 
not  anticipate  that  the  experience  of  a  family 
is  to  be  without  jars ;  they  expect  occasional  fric- 
tion and  temporary  misunderstandings.  Yet  it 
does  not  occur  to  them  that  the  escape  from  dis- 
agreement is  to  run  away.  They  have  set  themselves 
to  the  more  difficult  task  of  forgiveness  and  self- 
reproach.  They  have  not  married  like  pairing 
animals,  to  satisfy  their  passions,  but  as  human 
beings  in  whom  the  monogamic  instinct  has  sup- 
planted the  shifting  desires  of  the  herd.  The 
command  of  Jesus:  "What  therefore  God  hath 
joined  together,  let  not  man  put  asunder,"  has 
in  fact  nothing  to  do  with  the  problems  of  divorce 


58      THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

and  remarriage  with  which  it  is  commonly  and 
solemnly  associated.  It  deals  with  the  much  more 
fundamental  problem  of  helping  each  other  to 
bear  a  common  load.  The  "joining  together"  of 
which  Jesus  spoke  was  a  figure  derived  from  the 
yoking  of  a  pair  of  cattle  in  the  harvest  field ;  but 
this  yoking  was  not  like  the  chain  of  a  prisoner 
or  the  badge  of  a  slave.  It  was  the  union  of  two 
lives  so  that  each  might  pull  the  better.  The 
yoke  of  marriage  is  not  a  punishment,  but  a  help. 
It  distributes  the  strain ;  it  evens  the  load,  so  that 
two  can  do  with  ease  what  both  could  not  have 
done  if  each  had  pulled  alone. ^ 

Unity  in  marriage,  therefore,  does  not  mean 
uniformity,  or  identity,  or  subordination;  but 
harmony  in  diversity,  the  convergence  of 
capacities,  the  pulling  together  of  lives  which 
might  be  otherwise  pulled  apart.  Diversity 
in  disposition,  while  it  may  strike  fire  by 
collision  of  wills,  often  kindles  thereby  the 
flame  of  mutual  appreciation.  Incompatibility 
of  temper,  Mr.  Chesterton  has  said,  is  the  only 
basis  of  a  happy  marriage.  The  conflict  of  judg- 
ments, or  habits,  or  temperaments,  which  is  often 
regarded  as  perilous  to  the  home,  may  be  precisely 
what  saves  it  from  monotony  and  stagnation. 
The  yoke  of  marriage  evens  up  these  divergent 
qualities  so  that  they  pull  together,  —  the  poetic 

1  Matt.  XIX,  4  ff.,  6  6vv  6  Oebs  (rvp4^€v^ev.  The  use  of  the 
singular  suggests,  not  a  union,  but  a  unit. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  MODERN  FAMILY      59 

with  the  prosaic,  romance  with  common  sense, 
impulsiveness  with  caution,  eagerness  with  re- 
straint. A  union  without  differences  may  be 
saved  from  the  storms  of  contention  only  to  be 
wrecked  on  the  sands  of  dulness. 

Here  is  one  characteristic  of  modern  instability 
in  marriage  which  may,  in  some  degree,  encourage 
social  hope.  Young  people  have  come  to  demand 
more  of  each  other  than  marriage  once  involved. 
The  education  of  women  brings  with  it  a  new  claim 
for  intellectual  as  well  as  physical  companionship. 
A  new  range  of  desire  excites  a  new  discontent, 
which  may,  in  the  end,  promote,  not  social  deca- 
dence, but  social  reconstruction.  The  new  ideal 
which  involves  temporary  maladjustment  may 
issue  into  a  firmer  unity,  as  the  first  gusts  from  a 
new  quarter  are  threatening,  but  are  succeeded  by 
a  steadier  and  favoring  breeze. 

Still  more  contributory  to  stability  is  the  beneficent 
use  of  imagination  in  fortifying  the  new  relationship. 
People  who  love  each  other  are  apt  to  find  in  each 
other  finer  traits  than  others  can  see,  and  by  this 
faith  in  each  other  quicken,  or  even  create,  the 
quaUties  in  which  they  beUeve.  Many  a  man  or 
woman  who  appears  to  others  hopelessly  unin- 
teresting thus  becomes  through  the  idealizing 
touch  of  imagination,  or  the  creative  faith  of  a 
loving  partner  in  marriage,  the  one  person  in  all 
the  world  to  be  desired  and  cherished.  Excellence, 
nobility,  even  beauty,  which  may  be  altogether 


6o      THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

hidden  from  other  eyes,  is  discerned  by  love.  The 
normal  affection  of  a  married  pair,  like  the  love 
of  which  the  Apostle  Paul  writes,  suffereth  long 
and  is  kind,  hopeth  all  things,  endureth  all  things, 
and  never  faileth.  Faith,  hope,  and  love,  he  con- 
cludes, are  the  abiding  principles  of  human  society ; 
but  the  greatest  of  these  is  love. 

The  family,  thus  affection^ately  and  reverently 
created,  has  next  to  meet  the  problem  of  its  chil- 
dren. Not  to  want  children  in  marriage,  and 
not  to  care  for  them  when  they  are  given,  is,  un- 
less the  marriage  itself  be  physically  or  morally 
unjustifiable,  a  sure  sign  of  social  degeneration. 
Love  of  children  in  normal  human  beings  is  at 
least  as  imperative  as  sexual  love  itself;  and  in 
many  women  the  maternal  desire  precedes  uncon- 
sciously the  marital  consent.  It  is  sometimes 
felt  that  children  are  to  be  regarded  as  a  domestic 
extravagance,  incompatible  with  a  decent  stand- 
ard of  living ;  and  there  are  certainly  circumstances 
where  prudence  in  child-bearing  becomes  an  eco- 
nomic obligation.  Yet  no  early  mistake  in  marriage 
is  more  likely  to  be  calamitous  than  the  securing, 
by  needless  limitation  of  child-bearing,  of  present 
ease  at  the  cost  of  future  satisfaction.  Children 
are  likely  to  be  better,  both  morally  and  physically, 
in  the  companionship  of  a  large  family ;  and  chil- 
dren of  rare  gifts  are  more  Ukely  to  be  of  the  late- 
bom  than  of  the  first-born  in  a  family.  Still 
further,  children  may  be  the  most  profitable  in- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  MODERN  FAMILY      6 1 

vestment  of  care  and  money  which  parents  can 
make.  The  interest  on  the  investment,  though 
deferred,  is  cumulative.  Poor  people  thoroughly 
understand  this  truth,  and  anticipate  from  large 
expenditure  in  the  first  years  of  married  life  a 
correspondingly  large  return  to  parents  in  their 
old  age.  Prosperous  people,  on  the  other  hand, 
being  more  tempted  by  present  opportunities,  are 
apt  to  be  less  concerned  for  the  future,  and  may 
easily  find  themselves  in  later  life  with  a  full  bank- 
balance  and  an  empty  home.  "How  can  you  call 
that  man  rich?"  one  of  the  cleverest  of  American 
writers  has  said  of  one  of  the  richest  of  his  country- 
men, "He  has  only  one  son !"  Finally,  it  should 
be  observed  that  childless  marriages,  which  might 
appear  to  promise  a  higher  degree  of  comfort  and 
of  harmony,  are  in  fact  less  likely  to  be  stable 
than  marriages  with  children.  According  to  the 
statistics  of  divorce  in  the  United  States  two  dis- 
ruptions- of  the  family  occur  in  cases  without  chil- 
dren to  one  where  children  exist.  The  care  of 
children,  which  might  seem  to  exhaust  the  patience 
and  vitality  of  parents,  is  precisely  what  refreshes 
their  affection.  Many  a  home  threatened  by 
marital  incompatibiHty  has  been  saved  by  parental 
responsibility,  and  has  learned  by  its  ov/n  ex- 
perience the  meaning  of  the  ancient  promise:  "A 
little  child  shall  lead  them." 

The  history  of  the  normal  family  which  we  are 
tracing  reaches  a  further  stage  when    the    care 


62      THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

and  training  of  its  children  become  the  supreme 
objects  of  solicitude  and  devotion.  How  is  religion 
to  be  made  genuine  and  wholesome  for  children 
under  the  conditions  in  which  they  find  themselves 
in  the  modern  world?  How  may  they  grow  up 
without  a  sense  of  compulsion  from  which  they 
will  soon  be  inchned  to  rebel?  How  shall  the 
habits  of  rehgion  resist  the  unprecedented  assaults 
which  are  now  directed  against  the  modern 
home  from  the  three  strategic  points  occupied  by 
the  World,  the  Flesh,  and  the  Devil  ?  There  are, 
it  must  be  answered,  many  ways  of  instruction 
and  exhortation  which  parents  may  use,  and  which 
the  Church,  the  Sunday  school,  and  the  day-school 
may  supplement,  to  plant  the  seeds  of  faith  in  a 
child's  mind ;  but  the  roots  of  reUgious  experience, 
if  they  are  to  be  safe  from  drought  and  from  storm, 
must  be  set  deep  in  the  associations  and  memories 
of  a  reverent  and  discipHned  home.  It  is  not 
enough  to  say  that  parents  ought  to  be  good  ex- 
amples to  their  children.  Too  many  parents 
fancy  that  religion  is  a  kind  of  pose,  which  they 
may  assume  for  their  children's  sakes.  "When 
our  children  are  old  enough,"  they  say,  "to  appre- 
ciate our  example,  we  shall  go  to  church ;  mean- 
time it  is  enough  to  send  them  to  the  Sunday 
school,  and  to  be  for  ourselves  free  for  indolence 
or  sport."  But  the  fact  is  that  the  capacity  of 
children  to  discern  between  a  fictitious  and  a  real 
religion   is   developed   much    earlier    than    most 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  MODERN  FAMILY      63 

parents  believe,  and  those  who  are  more  concerned 
with  the  appearance  of  behavior  than  with  the 
reality  of  faith  find,  as  a  rule,  their  efforts  grow- 
ing intermittent  and  futile,  and  finally  delegate 
the  whole  question  of  religious  education  to  the 
minister,  or  schoolmaster,  or  other  expert  in  this 
special  field.  The  religious  influence  of  the  home 
on  children  begins,  in  other  words,  long  before 
either  children  or  parents  know  that  it  exists. 
Family  life  which  is  habitually  self-indulgent, 
frivolous,  or  contentious  cannot  be  redeemed  by 
bedside  prayers  or  compulsory  catechisms.  Family 
life  where  rehgion  is  indigenous  and  assimilated 
creates  a  soil  where  reverence  and  worship  are 
native  growths,  so  that  the  child  does  not  know 
when  the  roots  of  reHgion  first  fastened  themselves 
in  his  life,  and  only  realizes  their  force  when  they 
expand  into  branches  of  idealism.  Thus  the  family 
is  not  only,  as  the  Gospels  describe  it,  a  symbol 
of  the  Kingdom  of  God,  but  in  its  normal  expe- 
rience of  unconstrained  affection  it  is  also  the  germ 
of  that  Kingdom.  What  Jesus  wanted  the  world 
to  be,  that  to  the  little  child  is  his  loving  and  loyal 
home ;  and  what  the  parent  is  to  the  child,  that 
is  the  work  of  a  fatherly  God  in  a  world  of  trouble- 
some, yet  not  wholly  unpromising,  children. 

A  good  example  of  this  unconscious  influence  of 
early  association  is  to  be  found  in  the  religious  use 
of  literature.  A  parent  sets  his  child  to  the  memo- 
rizing of  passages  of  Scripture,  or  of  reHgious  poetry, 


64      THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

as  part  of  the  discipline  of  Sunday,  —  or  better, 
applies  himself  to  such  studies  with  his  child,  — • 
and  he  is  right  in  believing  that  this  habit  may 
prove  to  be  an  open  door  into  religious  experience. 
The  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  the  Parables,  the  verses 
of  Whittier,  or  Longfellow,  or  Bryant,  the  hymns 
of  Faber,  or  Newman,  or  Hosmer,  or  Gill,  —  in 
short,  all  lyrical  utterances  of  the  reUgious  life, 
uncomplicated  by  dogma,  reach  the  heart  of  child- 
hood with  peculiar  penetration,  and  are  perhaps 
appreciated  more  completely  than  by  the  sophis- 
ticated minds  of  the  more  mature.  "I  thank  thee, 
O  Father,  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth,  because  thou 
hast  hid  these  things  from  the  wise  and  prudent 
and  hast  revealed  them  unto  babes."  But  there  is 
more  than  appropriateness  to  childhood  in  the 
poetry  of  reHgion.  This  early  intimacy  with  ideal- 
ism, like  early  intimacy  with  noble  people,  may 
enrich  and  color  all  one's  later  life.  Even  though 
the  child  may  not  perfectly  understand  what  he 
learns  —  and  perhaps  the  better  because  he  does 
not  fully  understand  it  —  the  lyrical  note  may 
stir  his  imagination,  the  melody  or  swing  of  verse 
may  touch  his  heart ;  and  years  afterwards,  when 
experience  has  taught  him  the  truth  which  the  poet 
expressed,  the  man  may  be  supported  among  the 
complex  conditions  of  life  by  these  early  admira- 
tions and  half-understood  sympathies.  The  Ger- 
man teaching  of  religion  begins  most  judiciously, 
not  with  dogma,  but  with  the  memorizing  of  large 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  MODERN  FAMILY      65 

sections  of  Luther's  Bible,  and  of  the  hymns  and 
lyrics  which  perpetuate  German  piety.  Out  of 
the  heart  come  the  issues  of  life.  One  may  often 
recognize  by  the  very  vigor  and  richness  of  his 
diction  a  man  who  has  had  the  advantage  of  learn- 
ing, not  merely  by  rote,  but  by  heart,  the  best  of 
Christian  literature  in  his  childhood's  home. 

A  further  step  is  taken  in  this  story  of  domestic 
hfe  when  the  problems  of  education  must  be  more 
definitely  met.  How  shall  children  be  trained  to 
meet  the  conditions  of  modern  hfe?  How  much 
can  be  accompHshed  by  the  home  and  how  much 
must  be  delegated  to  the  school  ?  Are  the  habits 
of  social  Hfe  in  our  great  cities,  and  the  luxury  and 
frivolity  of  many  homes,  so  perilous  to  children 
that  they  must  be  deported,  while  still  unscathed, 
to  the  more  healthful  environment  and  the  firmer 
disciphne  of  boarding-schools  in  the  country  ?  The 
apprehensions  of  many  parents  at  this  point,  and 
their  confession  of  helplessness  amid  the  prevaihng 
tendencies  of  business  and  society,  have  encouraged 
a  new  disintegration  of  family  Hfe,  and  the  substitu- 
tion of  schoolmasters  for  parents  as  the  chief 
instruments  of  moral  education.  Some  parents, 
indeed,  seem  reduced  to  a  state  of  moral  impotency 
concerning  the  care  of  their  children ;  and  though 
competent  to  cope  with  the  most  intricate  ques- 
tions of  finance  or  of  learning  regard  themselves  as 
quite  incapable  of  bringing  up  their  own  famiHes 
with  discretion  and  success.    There  are  often,  it 


1 


66      THE   CHRISTIAN   LIFE   IN  THE   MODERN  WORLD 

must  be  admitted,  great  advantages  in  this  system 
of  delegated  parenthood.  A  good  school  is  a 
better  place  for  a  child  than  a  bad  home.  A 
schoolmaster  endowed  with  Christian  idealism 
is  a  better  influence  than  a  father  absorbed  in 
money-making  all  day,  or  a  mother  absorbed  in 
social  dissipation  all  night.  The  wholesome  con- 
ditions of  a  well-ordered  school  are  better  than  the 
luxury  and  the  preoccupation  of  a  self-indulgent 
home.  Yet  it  is  evident  that  this  transfer  of  func- 
tion is  the  abnegation  of  parenthood.  It  may  be 
forgiven  when  the  imperative  conditions  of  business 
make  a  continuous  or  healthful  home  impossible ; 
but  when  —  as  often  happens  —  it  is  frankly  ad- 
mitted that  the  habits  of  one's  home  are  undesirable 
for  one's  children,  there  could  hardly  be  a  more 
guilty  self-confession.  In  a  remarkable  book  on 
the  physical  aspects  of  human  development,  a 
distinguished  man  of  science  discusses  the  biological 
considerations  which  affect  the  function  and  main- 
tenance of  the  family,  and  concludes :  "  It  is  difficult 
to  picture  a  less  intelHgent  and  more  grossly  anti- 
biological  idea  than  that  which  would  separate 
parents  and  children.  An  equally  anti-social 
means  can  hardly  be  conceived,  for  to  separate  a 
family  from  the  people  naturally  best  endowed 
to  rear  them  would  be  to  rob  the  commimity  of 
the  human  quahties  that  make  most  strongly  for 
the  civilization  based  on  individual  development."  ^ 

*  C.  A.  Herter,  "The  Biological  Aspect  of  Human  Problems," 
1911,  p.  222. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  MODERN  FAMILY      67 

Nothing,  then,  short  of  physical  necessity  or  moral 
incompetency,  would  seem  to  justify  parents  in  any 
anti-biological  system  which  subordinates  the  home 
to  the  school. 

The  rapidly  increasing  tendency  in  the  United 
States  to  this  delegated  parenthood  is  in  large  part 
an  imitation  of  the  English  practice,  but  the  con- 
ditions are,  with  some  exceptions,  so  different  in  the 
two  countries  that  imitation  may  be  Uttle  more  than 
an  imported  fashion.  The  English  Public  School  is 
a  natural  consequence,  in  part  of  the  English  habit 
of  living  on  large  rural  estates,  and  in  part  of  the 
migration  of  many  parents  to  the  colonies.  A 
home-Hfe  remote  from  the  opportunities  of  educa- 
tion makes  the  deportation  of  children  to  schools 
a  social  necessity.  A  landed  aristocracy  and  a 
World-Power  must  be  suppHed  with  places  of 
safe-deposit  for  children.  The  American  inclina- 
tion to  accept  the  same  system  has,  however,  as  a 
rule,  had  a  precisely  opposite  origin,  —  the  move- 
ment of  the  prosperous,  not  toward  isolation,  but 
toward  aggregation ;  not  to  the  country  or  the 
colonies,  but  to  the  city,  where  plain  habits,  fresh 
air,  and  resources  of  play  are  lacking,  and  where 
children  are  Hkely  to  suffer  because  of  the  business 
interests  or  the  social  tastes  of  their  parents.  The 
boarding-school  becomes  thus  a  ransom  paid  for 
the  privilege  of  living  in  the  city.  The  parents 
love  their  children,  but  not  enough  to  adjust  their 
own  lives  to  the  welfare  of  their  children.     Indeed, 


68      THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

the  children  often  find  themselves  happier  away 
from  home  than  in  it.  Such  a  situation  may  be 
inevitable,  but  it  must  suggest  to  many  parents 
keen  self-reproach ;  for  they  are  not  only  confessing 
that  their  circumstances  or  habits  are  inconsistent 
with  the  rearing  of  children,  but  are  forfeiting  the 
best  chance  which  Ufe  can  give  for  the  enrichment 
and  refining  of  their  own  characters.  "There  is 
no  task,"  a  distinguished  Englishman  has  said, 
"which  Hfe  brings  with  it,  at  least  to  the  average 
man,  calculated  to  raise  him  so  much  as  the  task 
of  educating  his  own  children."  ^ 

It  is  interesting  to  observe,  still  further,  that  the 
principle  of  deportation  thus  applied  to  the  children 
of  the  prosperous  does  not  essentially  differ  from 
the  principle  long  accepted  by  scientific  charity  as 
appropriate  to  the  children  of  the  destitute.  A 
generation  ago  it  was  discovered  that  the  children 
of  the  street  must  be  transferred  to  the  healthier 
environment  of  the  country  if  their  moral  and 
physical  restoration  were  to  be  seriously  under- 
taken ;  and  the  placing-out  system  has  become  the 
prevailing  practice  of  child-saving  charities.  The 
same  method  is  now  appHed  to  the  children  of  the 
luxurious;  but  there  is  one  important  difference. 
The  placing-out  system  for  the  waifs  of  the  street 
is  essentially  a  family-system.  It  removes  the 
child  from  an  institution  and  puts  him  in  a  home. 

*  Sir  J.  Seeley,  "Roman  Imperialism  and  Other  Lectures  and 

Addresses,"  1871,  p.  284. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  MODERN  FAMILY      69 

"An  institution  boy,"  Jacob  Riis  has  said,  "makes 
the  worst  of  apprentices;  he  is  saved  from  being 
a  tough  by  becoming  an  automaton."  To  place 
the  child  in  a  home,  even  with  foster-parents,  is 
now  the  accepted  principle  of  child-saving,  which 
has  emptied  the  asylums  and  refreshed  the  country. 
The  opposite  of  this  procedure,  however,  still 
prevails  in  the  backward  science  of  child-saving 
among  the  rich.  Instead  of  deportation  from  in- 
stitutionalism  to  family  life,  there  is  an  increasing 
placing-out  under  institutional  conditions,  and  the 
difficult  problem  is  thus  presented  to  the  school  of 
converting  itself  into  the  kind  of  home  which  the 
child's  own  home  ought  to  be.  It  seems  not  un- 
reasonable, therefore,  to  suggest  that  the  time 
has  come  when  the  children  of  the  prosperous  may 
have  the  same  scientific  treatment  which  has  been 
for  years  applied  to  the  children  of  the  slums; 
and  that  the  function  of  the  family  in  the  develop- 
ment of  civilization  should  not  be  forgotten  even 
by  the  most  privileged  class.  "God  setteth  the 
solitary  in  families"  was  a  sociological  fact  which 
made  the  Psalmist  sing,  "  Let  the  righteous  be 
glad ;  let  them  rejoice  before  God."  Admirable 
characters  may  be,  and  often  are,  created 
by  devoted  teachers,  but  much  more  often  they 
are  unconsciously  inherited  from  parental  sacrifices 
and  domestic  love.  To  be  too  busy  to  bring  up 
one's  children  may  be  a  sincere  confession,  but  it 
is  certainly  a  pitiful  one ;  and  it  should  not  be  a 


7©     THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE   IN  THE   MODERN  WORLD 

surprise  if  the  training  of  a  school,  even  though  it 
engender  a  self-confident  will  and  a  healthy  body, 
may  develop  with  difficulty  the  instincts  of  con- 
siderateness  and  self-denial  which  are  the  natural 
and  unconscious  products  of  a  good  home. 

If,  then,  a  home  reverently  accepts  responsibility 
for  its  children  and  declines  to  forfeit  the  happi- 
ness of  association  with  youthful  minds  and  the 
formation  of  youthful  characters,  what  guidance 
may  be  found  among  these  decisions  and  counsels, 
so  that  they  may  be,  not  a  daily  perplexity  and 
weariness,  but  a  constant  inspiration  and  joy? 
There  is  needed,  first  of  all,  a  point  of  view,  a  prin- 
ciple of  action,  a  philosophy  of  the  family;  and 
this  general  law  of  Hfe  is  provided  by  the  teaching 
of  Jesus  Christ.  Why  is  it  that  the  family  is  re- 
garded by  him  with  such  peculiar  interest  as  the 
symbol  of  a  Kingdom  of  God?  It  is  because,  in 
that  group,  each  individual  comes  most  directly 
and  immediately  to  self-consciousness  and  self- 
reaHzation.  Within  the  problem  of  the  family 
stands  always  the  problem  of  the  person,  —  the 
parent,  or  the  child,  —  and  the  mutual  discipline 
in  self-development  and  self-restraint  which  the 
relations  of  parents  and  children  involve  make  of 
the  family  the  primary  school  of  human  character. 
The  teaching  of  Jesus  moves  round  two  foci,  — 
his  vision  of  the  Kingdom,  and  his  faith  in  the 
individual.  The  one  is  the  end  he  seeks ;  the  other 
is  the  means  he  uses.    The  Kingdom  is  a  family ; 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  MODERN  FAMILY      7 1 

but  a  family  is  made  of  persons.  Jesus,  in  other 
words,  had  what  the  author  of  "Ecce  Homo"  called 
a  passion  for  personaUty.  He  detects  the  possi- 
biUties  of  each  single  life  and  draws  out  its  latent 
powers;  he  beheves  in  people  before  they  believe 
in  themselves,  and  by  his  faith  in  them  makes  of 
them  what  he  desires  them  to  be. 

This  relation  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  to 
the  individual  gives  to  each  family  the  key  of 
its  own  problem.  To  discover  what  each 
member  of  the  family  has  in  him,  of  resources 
and  capacity,  and  to  draw  out  by  persuasion 
and  example  those  potential  and  often  unsus- 
pected gifts,  becomes  the  problem  of  Christian 
education.  Thus  the  training  of  children  is,  from 
its  very  outset,  a  highly  specialized  and  delightfully 
diversified  undertaking.  No  two  children  are  alike ; 
their  characters  are  as  distinct  as  their  faces. 
However  much  they  may  inherit  of  taste  or  in- 
cUnation,  they  never  reproduce  with  precision  the 
aims  or  temperaments  of  their  parents.  Nothing 
is  more  dramatic  in  parental  experience  than  the 
sense  of  baffled  surprise  with  which  one  observes 
in  his  children  impulses  and  forces  quite  unfamiUar 
to  himself.  One  wonders  how  it  is  possible  for  his 
own  child  to  think  and  feel  in  such  novel  ways. 
Yet  this  unpredictable  element  in  the  child  is  pre- 
cisely what  gives  to  any  thoughtful  parent  a  peren- 
nial interest  and  joy.  Each  new  life  is  a  new  prob- 
lem.    General  principles   of   training   have   their 


72      THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

place ;  but  must  be  given  flexibility  in  application. 
Rigid  rules  must  bend  to  fit  dispositions  or  talents. 
What  has  seemed  obviously  best  to  the  parent  may 
be  less  imperative  for  the  child.  The  rearing  of 
children  anticipates  in  a  very  curious  degree 
what  modern  education  calls  the  elective  system. 
Ways  to  truth,  which  parents  might  distrust 
as  untried,  may  be  the  best  way  for  the 
child  to  go.  The  distinction  between  lower  and 
higher  vocations  becomes  abolished.  The  only 
question  is  whether  a  real  vocation,  a  calhng,  a 
disclosure  of  the  ideal  to  the  young  life,  is  found. 
A  good  man  of  business  is  better  than  a  weak 
preacher.  Greek  is  as  desirable  as  chemistry,  but 
not  more  obHgatory.  The  purpose  of  each  election 
is  to  sift  out  the  best  that  is  in  the  individual  and 
to  sow  that  sifted  grain  in  favoring  soil. 

Finally  the  time  arrives  when  the  difl&cult  duty  is 
laid  upon  parents  of  giving  to  their  children  the  right 
to  their  own  Uves,  and  of  repeating,  not  without  a 
profound  sense  of  solitude  and  self-denial,  the  great 
words  of  the  Master  to  his  disciples:  "It  is  ex- 
pedient for  you  that  I  go  away ;  for  if  I  go  not 
away,  the  Comforter  will  not  come  unto  you.  .  .  . 
Howbeit  when  He,  the  Spirit  of  truth,  is  come,  he 
will  guide  you  into  all  truth."  The  decisions  of 
youth  may  be  different  from  those  which  a  parent 
might  desire,  but  if  the  parents  have  not  vitiated 
those  decisions  by  bad  example  or  distorted  them  by 
undue  pressure,  the  choices  of  youth  may  be  wiser 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  MODERN  FAMILY      73 

than  the  desires  of  age.  "Your  old  men,"  it  is 
written,  "  shall  dream  dreams,  your  young  men  shall 
see  visions" ;  and  many  a  parent  should  be  on  his 
guard  lest  the  dreams  which  he  cherishes  for  his 
child  shut  out  the  visions  which  the  child  sees  for 
himself. 

We  come  then,  last  of  all,  to  that  stage  of 
domestic  experience  which  succeeds  the  upbringing 
of  children,  when  the  parents,  if  both  have  sur- 
vived so  long,  are  left  together  to  face  the  sunset 
of  their  lives.  Here,  in  this  normal  case  of  family 
history  which  has  been  described,  there  arrives  a 
most  surprising  and  beautiful  experience,  Hke  that 
of  a  long  calm  afternoon  with  lengthening  shadows 
and  softening  light.  The  absorbing  preoccupations 
of  business  and  the  multifarious  interests  of  chil- 
dren have  slackened  in  their  demands ;  the  circle 
of  friendships  has  been  reduced  by  the  touch  of 
death ;  and  the  two  lives,  which  have  endured  the 
friction  of  the  years  and  the  moulding  discipline 
of  common  joys  and  sorrows,  j&nd  themselves  re- 
newing, with  a  curious  reiteration,  their  early 
experiences  of  mutual  devotion,  sufficiency,  and 
romance.  As  each  grows  of  less  importance  to  the 
busy  world  each  grows  more  precious  to  the  other. 
What  was  once  a  union  built  on  hope  now  finds 
new  resources  in  memory.  The  troubles  and  griefs 
which  they  have  shared  unite  them  quite  as  inti- 
mately as  the  hopes  and  joys  to  which  they  once 
looked  forward.     As  the   things  which  are  seen 


74      THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

prove  to  be  temporal,  so  the  things  which  are  un- 
seen prove  themselves  permanent  possessions ;  and 
among  the  treasures  which  they  find  most  secure 
from  loss  are  the  treasures  which  are  gone.  They 
have  come  out  upon  the  higher  ground  of  their 
journey  together,  where  the  view  of  life  is  not  shut 
in  by  the  details  of  passing  experiences,  but  where 
the  large  outlines  of  the  road  behind  and  before 
become,  not  only  visible,  but  colored  with  the 
evening  light.  They  see  how  strangely  they  have 
been  led,  through  perils  which  seemed  disastrous, 
and  by  ways  which  they  did  not  mean  to  go ;  and 
the  few  steps  which  will  now  lead  them  into  the 
dark  bring  no  alarm,  as  they  recall  how  their  way 
thus  far  has  been  more  wisely  directed  than  they 
could  have  asked  or  dreamed.  So,  at  the  end  of 
the  road,  they  part,  with  the  tranquil  assurance 
that  the  surprises  of  the  future  will  be  as  full  of 
blessings  as  the  surprises  of  the  past;  and  that 
heaven  will  seem  to  them  like  home  because  home 
with  all  its  vicissitudes  has  seemed  like  heaven. 

Is  such  a  family,  thus  created,  thus  maintained, 
and  thus  remembered,  impracticable  or  visionary  ? 
On  the  contrary,  this  is  the  simple  story  of  the 
normal  American  home.  The  ideals  derived  from 
the  Christian  tradition,  and  perpetuated  by  the 
spirit  of  the  Gospels,  are,  in  fact,  of  real  authority 
to  millions  of  inconspicuous  modern  lives.  The 
scandals  of  courts  and  the  outrages  of  libertines, 
which  are  reported  in   their    nauseating    details 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE   MODERN  FAMILY      75 

by  the  sensational  press,  are  as  remote  from  these 
experiences  of  the  t3^ical  American  family  as  a 
revolution  in  China  or  a  war  in  Tripoli.  The 
"forgotten  millions"  still  find  in  the  experiences 
of  the  home  the  essential  meaning  of  life,  and  in 
the  teaching  of  Jesus  its  best  interpreter. 


in 

THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND   THE  BUSINESS  WORLD 

The  practicabiKty  of  the  Christian  life  meets 
its  second  test  when  one  passes  from  the  problems 
which  confront  the  institution  of  the  family  under 
the  conditions  of  the  modern  world,  and  faces  the 
still  more  serious  and  perplexing  problems  presented 
by  the  world  of  money-making  and  wage-earning, 
of  modern  business  and  the  modern  industrial  order. 
Is  it  possible  to  maintain  the  ideals  of  Christian 
duty  amid  the  greed  and  scramble,  the  merciless 
competition  and  exploitation  of  the  commercial 
world  ?  Can  one  in  these  days  make  a  living  and 
at  the  same  time  make  what  may  be  reasonably 
called  a  life?  Can  one  gain  the  world  without 
losing  his  own  soul  ?  On  what  terms  may  a  disciple 
of  Jesus  Christ  participate  in  the  conflicts  and 
competitions  of  modern  business?  Must  not  a 
modem  man,  if  his  business  is  not  to  be  wrecked 
or  his  ideals  drowned,  construct  his  life  in  water- 
tight compartments,  so  that  his  faith  may  hold  up 
his  business  without  invading  it,  and  his  business 
float  without  dependence  on  his  faith  ? 

It  is  not  imcommon,  at  the  present  time,  to  hear 
these  questions  answered  by   an  indignant   and 

76 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  BUSINESS  WORLD      77 

passionate  assertion  that  a  Christian  life  in  the 
business  world  is  no  longer  possible.  Conviction 
on  this  point  has  become  so  deep  and  intense  as  to 
be  an  important  article  in  the  creed  of  social  revo- 
lution. The  prevaihng  and  inevitable  forms  of  all 
trade,  it  is  confidently  urged,  are  essentially  im- 
moral ;  in  small  affairs  a  form  of  gambling ;  in 
large  affairs  a  form  of  war.  One  cannot  touch  the 
pitch  of  modem  business  without  being  defiled. 
Gain  to  one  man  is  necessarily  loss  to  others. 
Prosperity  for  the  few  involves  destitution  for  the 
many.  As  the  rich  grow  richer,  the  poor  grow 
poorer.  "It  is  only  the  densest  ethical  ignorance," 
one  such  indictment  of  modem  society  reads, 
"that  talks  about  a  Christian  business  life,  for 
business  is  now  intrinsically  evil.  .  .  .  There  is 
no  such  thing  as  an  ethical  bargain,  .  .  .  There 
are  no  honest  goods  to  buy  or  sell.  The  hideous 
competitive  war  makes  the  industrial  order  seem 
like  the  triumph  of  hell  and  madness  on  the  earth."* 
"To-day,"  another  advocate  of  social  revolution 
says,  "every  successful  business  man  is  an  extor- 
tioner. .  .  .  The  business  man  who  is  not  willing 
to  be  a  wolf  cannot  remain  in  his  business."  ^ 
"Competitive  commerce,"  a  much  more  controlled 
and  judicial  observer  of  the  times  has  remarked, 
"pits  men  against  one  another  in  a  gladiatorial 

1  G.  D.  Herron,  "Between  Caesar  and  Jesus,"  1899,  pp.  26,  27. 
^Bouck  White,  "The  Carpenter  and  the  Rich  Man,"  1914, 
pp.  59,  60. 


78      THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

game  in  which  there  is  no  mercy  and  in  which  ninety 
per  cent  of  the  combatants  finally  strew  the  arena. 
.  .  .  The  gentlest  and  kindliest  friends  and  neigh- 
bors .  .  .  will  drain  the  strength  of  their  men  and 
pay  their  female  employees  wages  on  which  no  girl 
can  live  without  supplementing  them  in  someway."^ 
Such  a  condition  of  inevitable  criminality  a  disciple 
of  Jesus  Christ  must  pledge  himself  to  overthrow. 
"The  worst  charge  that  can  be  made  against  a 
Christian,"  it  is  said,  "is  that  he  attempts  to  justify 
the  existing  order.  .  .  .  Revolution  is  the  Chris- 
tian's business."  ^  Economic  revolution  becomes 
the  necessary  antecedent  of  a  revival  of  religion. 
A  practicable  Christianity  must  be  postponed  until 
the  existing  structure  of  modem  business  is  over- 
thrown, and  a  new  world  built  on  its  ruins. 

It  must  be  at  once  admitted  that  many  signs  of 
the  business  world  go  far  to  justify  these  demands 
for  radical  change.  Business  is  often  conducted 
as  though  efficiency  compelled  participation  in  a 
pitiless  and  insolent  war.  The  greed  of  employers 
or  the  indifference  of  absentee  owners  may  be 
responsible  for  the  physical  or  moral  ruin  of  the 
employed;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  reck- 
less hate  or  inflammable  ignorance  of  wage- 
earners  may  wreck  the  very  business  on  which 
their    income    depends.      With    still    more    op- 

^  W.  Rauschenbusch,  "  Christianity  and  the  Social  Crisis," 
1908,  p.  265. 

*  G.  D.  Herron,  "The  New  Redemption,"  1893,  PP-  i4i>  143* 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  BUSINESS  WORLD      79 


pressive  effect  the  forces  of  employers  and  em- 
ployed, instead  of  fighting  with  each  other,  not  in- 
frequently combine  in  a  conspiracy  against  the 
consumers  of  their  product,  and  extort  from  a 
non-combatant  pubHc  the  price  of  industrial 
peace.  Thus  the  various  incidents  of  war,  — 
alliances,  treaties,  strategy,  raids,  and  pitched 
battles,  —  are  reproduced  in  the  story  of  labor 
conflicts;  and  the  industrial  ideal,  now  frankly 
accepted  by  many  leaders  as  satisfactory,  is  a  state 
of  organized  opposition  between  two  disciplined 
armies,  each  with  its  own  class-consciousness,  its 
own  weapons,  its  authority  to  arbitrate,  and  its 
securing  of  peace,  like  the  nations  of  Europe,  by 
maintaining  a  fighting  force  too  strong  to  be 
attacked.  Finally  arrives  the  practical  application 
of  this  creed  of  hostility  in  the  "  direct  action  " 
of  the  modern  Syndicalist.  "  Capital,"  it  is  pas- 
sionately maintained,  "  has  no  rights  which  labor 
is  bound  to  respect.  We  produce  everything ;  we 
mean  to  have  everything.  .  .  .  Ours  is  a  constant 
war,  and  the  end  of  it  is  the  overthrow  of  society 
and  the  abolition  of  the  private  ownership  of 
capital."  ^ 

Here,  then,  is  a  test  of  the  Christian  life 
which  is  unquestionably  very  severe.  The 
processes  of  business  are  so  beset  by  solicitations 
to  oppression  and  fraud;  the  habit  of  acquisition 
is  so  hard  to  supplement  by  the  habit  of  distribution ; 

^  The  Survey,  Apr.  6,  1912,  p.  80. 


8o      THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

the  prehensile  hand  becomes  so  reluctantly  the  open 
palm ;  the  rewards  of  illegitimate  success  are  so  im- 
mediate and  alluring,  while  the  rewards  of  integrity 
seem  so  remote  and  intangible ;  that  the  man  of 
business  must  be  regarded  as  the  most  directly 
and  gravely  tempted  of  modern  men.  The  solemn 
warning  of  Jesus  Christ  is  verified  in  the  business 
world  to-day  on  a  scale  and  with  a  conspicuousness 
which  were  inconceivable  in  Galilee:  "Children, 
how  hard  is  it  for  them  that  trust  in  riches  to 
enter  into  the  Kingdom  of  God." 

Yet,  even  when  the  severity  of  this  test  is 
frankly  recognized  must  it  be  regarded  as  one 
which  it  is  impossible  to  meet  ?  Is  modem  business 
essentially  and  incurably  evil  ?  Must  the  disciple  of 
Jesus  Christ  either  retreat  from  it  to  some  communis- 
tic organization  of  uncompetitive  Hving,  or  else  trans- 
form it  by  social  revolution  into  an  industrial  order 
which  is  consistent  with  the  Christian  life  ?  And 
even  if  that  economic  transformation  were  ac- 
complished, would  it  insure  a  purification  of  the 
motives  and  emancipation  from  the  self-interest  and 
greed  which  taint  and  blight  the  business  world  to- 
day ?  Is  the  human  inclination  to  compete  a  mere 
product  of  capitalistic  society  which  would  vanish 
with  the  nationalization  of  industries  and  the  aboli- 
tion of  the  wage-system  ?  Is  it  certain  that,  as  Bebel 
once  said,  "To  accomplish  the  expropriation  of  the 
instruments  of  production  is  to  lay  a  new  founda- 
tion for  society.     Not  only  industry,  agriculture, 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  BUSINESS  WORLD      8 1 

commerce  and  education,  but  marriage,  science, 
art,  society,  —  in  short,  all  human  life  will  then 
be  transformed."  * 

When  one  turns  with  these  questions  to 
the  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ  he  finds,  it  is 
true,  many  afl&rmations  concerning  the  spirit- 
ual risks  of  a  business  hfe  which  are  as  unmeasured 
as  those  of  any  modem  revolutionist.  "Lay  not 
up  for  yourselves  treasures  upon  the  earth  " ;  "Sell 
that  thou  hast  and  give  to  the  poor,  and  thou  shalt 
have  treasure  in  heaven";  "Thou  fool  .  .  .  that 
layeth  up  treasure  for  himself  and  is  not  rich 
toward  God."  When,  however,  one  inquires  for 
the  way  of  deliverance  from  competitive  greed  and 
degrading  commercialism,  he  hears  in  Jesus  a  note 
quite  distinct  from  that  of  economic  change.  .  v  a^*" 
"Cleanse  first,"  he  says,  "that  which  is  within  the 
cup  and  platter."  "From  within,  out  of  the  heart 
of  man,  proceed  .  .  .  thefts,  covetousness,  deceit, 
pride,  foolishness."  "The  Kingdom  of  God 
Cometh  not  with  observation  ...  for  behold, 
the  Kingdom  of  God  is  within  you."  The  fim- 
damental  evils  of  industrialism,  in  other  words, 
are  not  mechanical,  but  ethical;  not  primarily 
of  the  social  order,  but  of  the  unsocialized 
soul.  No  rearrangement  of  production  and  dis- 
tribution can  of  itself  abohsh  the  commercial  in- 
stincts of  ambition  and  competition,  or  even  the 
baser  desires  of  theft,  covetousness,  and   deceit. 

^  "Die  Frau  und  der  Sozialismus,"  lote  Aufl.,  1891,  s.  261. 


y. 


V-.-\ » 


82      THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

"Out  of  the  heart  of  men"  these  sins  have  pro- 
ceeded, and  in  the  heart  of  man  they  must  be  sub- 
dued. The  old  order  of  industry  is  tottering  be- 
cause it  has  not  been  ethically  maintained ;  the  new 
order  could  not  survive  a  year  unless  administered 
by  unselfish  minds  and  cooperative  wills.  Through 
whatever  door  the  better  future  may  be  entered,  the 
master-key  is  not  that  of  circumstance  but  that  of 
character.  ^ 

Thus,  the  fallacy  of  the  sociaUst  programme  is 
not  in  its  radicaHsm,  but  in  its  externaUsm.  It 
proposes  to  accomplish  by  economic  change  what 
can  be  attained  by  nothing  less  than  spiritual  re- 
generation. Its  programme  depends  for  efficacy 
on  unselfishness,  brotherliness,  and  love  of  ser- 
vice, but  no  way  for  the  training  of  these  virtues 
is  provided,  or  indeed  advised.  The  transforma- 
j  ,  tion  of  business  methods  would,  it  is  assumed, 
^  convert  the  same  people  who  are  now  brutally  self- 


f- 


seeking  and  cynically  cruel,  into  agents  of  mag- 
nanimity, fraternity,  and  justice.  To  Jesus,  on  the 
"T^C^  other  hand,  the  root  of  commercial  wrongs  is  in 
commercialized  desire.  The  force  of  competition 
is  not  one  which  can  be  aboUshed,  but  it  is  one 
which  can  be  converted.  It  is  the  natural  expres- 
sion of  the  desire  to  achieve,  to  accompUsh,  to 
measure  one's  powers,  to  do  one's  best.  If  not 
directed  to  money-making,  it  may  be  directed  to 
the  attainment  of  place  or  power ;  and  an  indus- 
trial order  which  prohibited  commercial  competi- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  BUSINESS  WORLD      83 

tion  might  offer  an  unprecedented  opportunity  for 
political  or  administrative  strategy.  The  only 
practical  problem,  therefore,  is  to  apply  the  prin- 
ciple of  competition  to  beneficent  ends.  It  is  like  a 
rushing  stream  which  may  work  disaster  but  which 
may  be  transformed  by  science  and  industry  from  a 
source  of  peril  into  a  source  of  power.  Better  ma- 
chinery may  ease  the  burden  of  production,  but 
that  machinery  must  have  as  its  engineers  better 
men.  Business  under  any  conceivable  economic 
readjustment  will  remain  a  scene  of  contention  and 
self-seeking  unless  it  be  lifted  to  the  level  of  a  spir- 
itual opportunity  and  utiUzed  as  an  instrument  for 
the  Kingdom  of  God. 

These  considerations  lead  the  disciple  of  Jesus 
Christ  to  a  renewal  of  interest  in  the  world  as  it  is, 
with  all  its  manifest  failings  and  sins,  its  iniquity 
and  injustice,  its  excessive  wealth  and  its  grievous 
need.     The  creation  of  a  more  favorable  environ-\ 
ment  remains  the  task  of  economic  reform,  in  which  i 
the     Christian    life    eagerly    cooperates.     Better  i 
housing,  better  conditions  of  labor,  better  sanita-: 
tion  and  education,  the  protection  of   childhood, 
disability  and  old  age,  the  checking  of  the  drink- 
habit  and  of  commercialized  vice,  —  all  these,  and 
many  other  ways  of  social  amelioration  invite  the 
participation  of  those  who  look  for  the  "new  heaven 
and  new  earth  wherein  dwelleth  righteousness." 
Yet,  however  loyally  the  disciple  of  Jesus  Christ 
may  enlist  for  this  campaign  of  social  change,  and 


A 


84      THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

however  vividly  he  may  dream  of  a  new  industrial 
order  more  consistent  with  Christian  fratemahsm, 
he  finds  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus  no  encouragement 
to  delay  discipleship  until  that  better  world  arrives. 
On  the  contrary,  he  finds  set  before  him  the  much 
more  difficult  task  of  creating  the  characters  which 
may  utilize  the  better  order  when  it  comes. 

Here  is  no  issue  between  environment  and 
personality  as  factors  in  social  progress.  The 
material  and  the  spiritual,  the  external  and  the  per- 
sonal, are  as  essential  aUies  as  hands  or  wings. 
The  teaching  of  Jesus  is  not  a  substitute  for  hygiene 
or  recreation  or  industrial  partnership ;  but  it  re- 
calls a  generation  which  fancies  that  external  change 
will  insure  moral  redemption  to  the  spiritual  condi- 
tions of  effective  reform.  Character,  it  teaches,  is 
a  creator  as  well  as  a  product.  To  postpone  the 
Christian  life  until  a  propitious  environment  arrives 
is  to  surrender  the  right  to  create  that  environ- 
ment. If  a  new  social  order  must  be  the 
preliminary  condition  of  a  practicable  Christianity, 
then  it  would  seem  probable  that  the  new  social 
order  could  get  on  without  Christianity.  If  the 
Christian  life  is  to  be  practicable  anywhere,  it 
must  be  so  here.  "Now  is  the  accepted  time; 
now  is  the  day  of  salvation."  The  Christian's 
primary  business  is  not  to  anticipate  that  a  change 
in  economic  conditions  will  relieve  him  of  the  prob- 
lem of  social  redemption ;  but  to  apply  himself  to 
the  much  more  arduous  and  audacious  task  of 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LITE  AND  THE  BUSINESS  WORLD      85 

redeeming  the  world  as  it  is,  and  of  justifying  the 
promise  of  those  "great  voices  in  heaven  saying, 
'The  kingdoms  of  this  world  are  become  the  King- 
dom of  our  Lord  and  of  His  Christ.'"  One  of  the 
most  wholesome  propositions  with  which  the  prob- 
lems of  the  industrial  world  have  been  approached 
is  that  which  the  late  Pope  Leo  XIII  announced 
in  1 891  at  the  beginning  of  his  Encyclical  on  the 
condition  of  labor.  "Let  it  be  laid  down  in  the 
first  place,"  he  said,  "that  humanity  must  remain 
as  it  is.  It  is  impossible  to  reduce  human  society 
to  a  level.  There  is  nothing  more  useful  than  to 
look  at  the  world  as  it  really  is." 

Assuming,  then,  that  humanity  is  to  remain  for 
the  present  as  it  is,  one  may  proceed  to  inquire 
how  the  men  and  women  of  this  present  world  ;  ^ 
may  conduct  their  business,  make  their  commer-  ) 
dal  decisions,  estimate  their  successes,  win  their 
rewards,  and  adjust  themselves  to  the  indus- 
trial order,  in  ways  which  might  commend  them- 
selves to  the  mind  of  Jesus  Christ. 

When  one  turns  for  an  answer  of  this  question 
to  the  Gospels,  he  must,  first  of  all,  be  on  his 
guard  against  excessive  expectations.  The  world  in 
which  Jesus  worked  and  taught  was  in  its  form 
and  method  two  thousand  years  away  from  the 
business  world  of  to-day.  The  provincial  life  of 
Galilee,  the  racial  exclusiveness  of  Jerusalem,  and  the 
habits  of  a  primitive  peasantry,  which  created  the 
industrial  environment  of  the  Gospels,  make  it 


f"- 


86      THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN   WORLD 

impossible  to  find  in  them  specific  instructions 
concerning  the  unprecedented  problems  of  the  mod- 
em industrial  world.  Rights  of  combination  and 
organization,  adjustments  of  trusts  and  unions,  the 
scope  of  private  initiative  and  the  need  of  collective 
control,  —  these  critical  problems  of  the  twentieth 
century  would  have  been  completely  unintelligible 
to  a  man  of  the  first  century.  To  construct  a 
science  of  "Christian  economics"  in  the  sense  of 
regulating  modern  industry  by  the  specific  direc- 
tions of  the  Gospels,  is  as  impracticable  a  task  as  to 
plan  that  the  multiplying  millions  of  Jews  in 
the  United  States  shall  return  to  the  primitive 
conditions  of  Palestine.  Each  age  has  to  meet 
its  own  economic  problems ;  and  each  land  has  set 
before  it  the  new  task  of  becoming,  in  due  time, 
a  Holy  Land. 

It  must  be  still  further  recognized  that,  however 
weighty  and  significant  the  social  message  of  the 
Gospels  may  be,  it  was  not  to  this  end  that  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  Christ  was  specifically  directed. 
"The  mind  of  the  Teacher  was  primarily  turned 
another  way.  .  .  .  His  social  teaching  was  a  by- 
product of  his  religious  mission."^  "Neither  the 
teaching  of  Jesus,"  as  Troeltsch  has  said,  in  begin- 
ning his  exhaustive  study  of  Social  Christianity, 
"nor  the  growth  of  the  early  Church,  is  the  product 
of  a  social  agitation  or  the  consequence  or  corollary 

»  Cf.  F.  G.  Peabody,  "Jesus  Christ  and  the  Social  Question," 
1900,  pp.  75-79. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  BUSINESS  WORLD      87 

of  a  class-conflict.  .  .  .  The  great  redemptive 
hope  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  on  which  the  teaching 
is  based  and  which  inspires  the  whole  Church,  is 
not  the  hope  of  a  perfected  social  condition  .  .  . 
but  the  moral  and  religious  ideal  of  a  world  imder 
God's  unobstructed  rule,  where  all  true  values  of 
the  spiritual  hfe  will  have  their  justification  and 
recognition.  .  .  .  Here  is  the  fundamental  truth 
from  which  one's  study  must  proceed."^ 

These  qualifications,  however,  do  not  make  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  concerning  the  business  world 
either  obsolete  or  unimportant.     On  the  contrary, 
they  are  precisely  what  give  to  that  teaching  its 
quality  of  universality.    The  remoteness  of  his 
career  frees  his  message  from  local  limitations ;  its 
spiritual  nature  lifts  it  above  the  economic  issues 
of   the   modern   world.     Specific   regulations   for/, 
the  conduct   of   business   are   not   prescribed  hyi  i 
him ;    but    the   much   more   important    teaching  J 
of  an  attitude  toward  business,  a  habit  of  mind]  \ 
a  principle  of  interpretation  to  be  applied  to  busi-l 
ness,  is  a  distinct  and  unmistakable  element  oi 
the  Gospels. 

In  the  first  place  it  should  be  noticed 
that  the  teaching  moves  with  a  pecuHar 
sympathy  among  the  problems  and  interests 
of  trade  and  labor,  and  finds  in  the  business  of 

^E.  Troeltsch,  "Die  Soziallehren  der  christlichen  Kirche," 
191 2,  s.  15.  The  long  foot-note  (ss.  17-19)  elaborates  this 
view  and  examines  others. 


88      THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

the  world  abundant  illustrations  and  types  of 
Christian  discipleship.  When  with  reiterated 
emphasis  and  varied  figures  of  speech  Jesus  de- 
scribes the  Kingdom  of  God  which  it  is  his  mission 
to  found,  it  is  the  workers  of  the  world,  doing  their 
daily  business,  who  seem  to  him  most  tjrpical  of 
the  kingdom  and  its  aims.  The  sower  in  the  field, 
the  shepherd  leading  his  flock,  the  merchant  buy- 
ing pearls,  the  fisherman  casting  his  net,  the 
laborer  waiting  to  be  hired,  the  householder  dig- 
ging his  wine-press,  —  these,  and  people  like  these, 
stand  out  in  his  teaching,  not  as  though  concerned 
with  secular  and  unsanctified  vocations  from  which 
they  have  to  free  themselves  if  they  would  enter 
the  Christian  fellowship,  but  as  witnesses  of  the 
sanctity  of  labor,  as  types  of  the  practical  reUgion 
of  a  working  world,  as  concerned  with  tasks  not  in- 
consistent with  discipleship.  In  other  words,  the 
attitude  of  Jesus  to  the  world  of  business  is  not 
that  of  an  economist,  or  a  revolutionist,  but  that 
of  an  idealist,  who  discerns  behind  the  ordinary  prac- 
tices of  productive  labor  and  commercial  exchange 
the  possibility  of  a  spiritual  enterprise.  Precisely 
as  the  Ufe  of  the  family,  which  may  represent  noth- 
ing more  than  a  petty  collision  of  self-seeking  wills, 
is  taken  up  into  the  ideahsm  of  Jesus  and  becomes 
his  symbol  of  God's  love  for  man,  so  the  buying  and 
selling,  the  hiring  and  producing,  of  the  business 
world,  though  it  may  abound  in  sordidness  and 
brutality,  is  taken  up  into  the  same  ideaUsm  of 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  BUSINESS  WORLD      89 

Jesus  and  becomes  a  school  of  character,  a  field  for 
the  religious  life,  a  parable  of  the  Kingdom.  The 
monastic  ideal  of  the  Christian  life  dictated  an 
abandonment  of  the  work  of  the  world  for  the 
saving  of  one's  own  soul.  The  ideal  of  Jesus,  on 
the  other  hand,  proposes  a  utilization  of  the  work 
of  the  world  for  the  saving,  not  of  one's  own  soul 
alone,  but  of  the  world  itself.  Not  the  rejection, 
but  the  consecration  of  work;  not  a  retreat  from 
the  world,  but  a  victory  over  the  world;  not  an 
ascetic,  but  an  athletic  religion,  is  the  teaching 
of  the  Gospels.  "I  must  be  about  my  Father's 
business,"  said  Jesus  at  the  beginning  of  his  career ; 
—  and  at  the  end  he  says  again,  "I  have  finished 
the  work  which  Thou  gavest  me  to  do." 

Here,  then,  is  at  least  a  starting-point  for  the 
disciple  of  Jesus  Christ  in  his  estimate  of  business 
life.  The  forms  of  industrial  activity  change  with 
each  successive  age.  Invention,  discovery,  ma- 
chinery and  organization,  revolutionize  business 
methods  in  ways  which  the  teaching  of  Jesus  could 
not  anticipate  or  judge.  The  Gospels  are  not  a 
text-book  of  mechanics,  but  a  source-book  of  power. 
The  teaching  of  Jesus  was  not  commercial,  but 
spiritual.  The  purpose  of  Jesus  was  not  to  make 
rules,  but  to  make  men.  The  New  Testament  is 
not  a  Book  of  Laws,  but  a  Book  of  Life.  And  yet, 
through  the  constantly  changing  mechanism  of 
business  may  work  the  imchanging  power  of  the 
Christian  life.    What  the  sower  and  fisherman,  the 


90      THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

steward  and  hired  servant,  were  to  Jesus  in  Galilee, 
ythat  the  inventor  and  manufacturer,  the  trustee 
and  the  wage-earner,  may  be  to-day.  Through 
their  business,  and  not  apart  from  it,  or  round  it, 
is  the  way  of  their  discipleship.  If  a  practicable 
Christianity  is  to  be  discovered  under  the  conditions 
of  the  modem  world,  it  must  be  found  within  the 
forms  of  business  which  are  essential  to  the  work 
of  modem  men. 

What,  then,  one  may  ask,  is  that  aspect  of  busi- 
ness which  in  any  age  may  encourage  the  faith  of 
the  idealist  and  may  give  to  the  concerns  of 
trade  a  touch  of  dignity  and  even  of  beauty? 
It  is,  according  to  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  the 
part  which  the  business  world  may  take  in 
fulfilling  the  supreme  law  of  the  Christian  Hfe,  — 
the  Law  of  Service.  Here  is  the  great  word  in 
which  the  social  ideal  of  Jesus  is  disclosed.  "Who- 
soever will  be  chief  among  you,  let  him  be  your 
servant,  even  as  the  Son  of  man  came  not  to  be 
ministered  unto,  but  to  minister."  Success,  leader- 
ship, distinction,  that  is  to  say,  are  all  to  be  esti- 
mated by  their  contribution  to  service.  One's  hfe 
is  not  one's  own,  but  is  committed  to  one's  keeping, 
to  be  used  and  accounted  for  as  by  a  trustee. 
"It  is  as  a  man  travelling  into  a  far  country  who 
called  his  own  servants  and  delivered  unto  them  his 
goods."  One  does  not  own  the  talents  entrusted 
to  him,  he  owes  them.  "After  a  long  time  the  Lord 
of  those  servants  cometh  and  reckoneth  with  them." 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  BUSINESS  WORLD      9 1 

The  teaching  is  applied  to  the  whole  of  life, 
to  the  responsibilities  of  thought,  duty,  or 
affection,  as  much  as  to  those  of  trade.  Yet  the 
language  which  Jesus  chooses  to  express  this  com- 
prehensive thought  is  that  of  business  life. 
"Unto  one  he  gave  five  talents,  to  another 
two,  and  to  another  one ;  to  every  man  accord- 
ing to  his  several  ability."  The  doctrine  of 
service,  therefore,  is  primarily  and  immediately 
applicable  to  the  business  world.  Money  is  not 
owned,  but  owed.  The  man  of  business  must 
be  able  to  repeat  his  Master's  saying,  "I  am 
among  you  as  one  that  serveth."  The  condem- 
nation of  the  man  with  one  talent  was  not  because 
he  had  misused  it  or  wasted  it,  but  because  he  had 
not  set  it  to  serve.  He  had  fancied  his  duty  dis- 
charged when  he  returned  the  loan  undiminished. 
"Lo,  there  thou  hast  that  is  thine."  But  the  owner 
demands  the  utilization  of  his  capital,  "Thou 
oughtest  to  have  put  my  money  to  the  exchangers." 
A  talent  hidden  means  a  service  unfulfilled.  It 
is  the  sin,  as  Browning  says :  — 

"...  Of  each  frustrate  ghost, 
The  unlit  lamp  and  the  ungirt  loin." 

The  business  world,  then,  must  submit  to  this 
test  of  service.  The  business  man  who  is  primarily 
concerned,  not  with  serving  but  with  saving,  not 
with  creation  but  with  corruption,  is  but  a  mod- 
em   instance    of   "that    servant  who   knew  his 


92      THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

Lord's  will  and  prepared  not  himself."  He  says 
in  his  heart:  "My  Lord  delayeth  His  coming," 
.  .  .  but  "The  Lord  of  that  servant  will  come  in  a  day 
when  he  looketh  not  for  him  .  .  .  and  will  appoint 
him  his  portion  with  the  unbelievers."  The  man 
of  business  who,  as  Edmimd  Burke  said  of  "all 
persons  possessing  any  portion  of  power,"  is 
"awfully  impressed  with  an  idea  that  he  acts  in 
trust  and  that  he  is  to  account  for  his  conduct  in 
that  trust  to  the  one  great  master,  author,  and 
foimder  of  society,"^  is  what  Jesus  called  "the 
faithful  and  wise  steward,  whom  his  Lord  hath 
made  ruler  over  his  household."  .  .  .  "Blessed  is 
that  servant  whom  his  Lord  when  He  cometh, 
shall  find  so  doing." 

Such  is  the  searching  test  which  the  teaching  of 
Jesus  applies  to  the  business  world;  and  it  is  a 
test  which  the  present  generation  is  in  an  extraor- 
dinary degree  inclined  to  accept.  Many  aspects 
of  the  Gospels  have  for  the  great  majority  of  modem 
minds  nothing  more  than  a  meagre  and  declining 
interest.  The  mysteries  of  Christology,  the  prob- 
lems of  eschatology,  the  evidence  of  miracles,  even 
the  assurances  of  immortality,  which  have  seemed 
in  other  periods  the  critical  questions  of  New  Testa- 
ment interpretation,  have  surrendered  their  place 
in  the  foreground  of  thought  to  the  more  pressing 
and  appealing  problems  of  obligation  and  oppor- 

^"  Reflections  on  the  Revolution  in  France,"  etc,  ed.  1790, 
p.  138- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  BUSINESS  WORLD      93 

tunity  created  by  the  unprecedented  conditions  of 
the  modern  industrial  world.  The  life  that  now  is, 
with  its  conflicts  and  confusions,  its  pathos  and  trag- 
edy, has  crowded  out  from  many  minds  all  thought 
of  the  life  which  is  to  come,  and  the  desire  to  ful- 
fil one's  part  "in  this  present  world,"  to  sanctify 
oneself  for  others'  sakes  —  or,  as  the  philosophers 
say,  to  realize  oneself  in  the  world  of  the  common 
good  —  has  become  the  working  creed  of  many  a 
modem  man.  One  word  sums  up  this  practical 
confession.  It  is  the  word  Service.  No  Christian 
hymn  is  sung  by  modem  congregations  with  more 
complete  acceptance  of  its  teaching  than  that  of 
Wesley :  — 

"To  serve  the  present  age, 
My  calling  to  fulfil, 
O  may  it  all  my  powers  engage 
To  do  my  Master's  will." 

No  period  in  history  has  been  able  to  appreciate 
so  fully  the  meaning  of  the  Gospel  paradox, 
"Whosoever  will  be  chief  among  you,  let  him  be 
your  servant." 

The  teaching  of  Jesus  is,  in  fact,  the  uni- 
versalizing of  a  principle  which  already  con- 
trols great  niunbers  of  modem  lives.  "Social  ser- 
vice" has  become  a  technical  or  professional 
vocation,  in  which  certain  trained  specialists  en- 
gage ;  but  in  the  language  of  the  Gospels  the  ordi- 
nary work  of  the  world  and  its  prosaic  cares  are 
types  of  social  service.    In  them,  as  truly  as  in 


94      THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE   MODERN   WORLD 

almsgiving,  one  is  called  not  to  be  ministered  unto, 
'  but  to  minister.  In  his  office  or  factory  the  disciple  of 
Jesus  Christ  is  called  to  repeat  his  Master's  precept, 
"  If  any  man  desire  to  be  first,  the  same  shall  be  .  .  . 
servant  of  all."  Not  the  philanthropist  alone,  or 
even  chiefly,  as  he  sacrifices  a  fragment  of  his  time  and 
life  for  social  service,  but  the  man  of  business  doing 
his  work  amid  the  competition  and  confusion  of 
the  commercial  world,  may  receive  the  Master's 
commendation,  "Well  done,  good  and  faithful 
servant  .  .  .  enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  thy  Lord." 
"  When  we  try  to  serve  the  world,"  a  distinguished 
physician  has  lately  said  in  his  admirable  book, 
"  we  touch  what  is  Divine.  Service  is  one  of  the 
ways  by  which  a  tiny  insect  like  one  of  us  gets  a 
purchase  on  the  whole  universe."  *  The  law 
of  service  is,  in  short,  among  the  problems  of 
conduct  what  the  law  of  attraction  is  in  the 
physical  world.  It  gives  to  the  individual  life  its 
orbit  round  a  larger  centre,  and  sets  it  in  a  uni- 
verse of  order  instead  of  in  a  fortuitous  concourse 
of  atoms  drifting  in  a  meaningless  world. 

If,  then,  these  are  the  terms  on  which  a  Chris- 
tian life  is  practicable  in  a  modern  business  world, 
if  business  methods  must  be  justified  by  the  prin- 
ciple of  service  or  be  condemned  and  overthrown, 
it  becomes  of  critical  interest  to  inquire  whether 
the  existing  industrial  order  is  in  any  degree  capable 
of  meeting  this   test.     Have  prevailing  business 

1  R.  C.  Cabot,  "What  Men  Live  By,"  1914,  P-  85. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  BUSINESS  WORLD      95 

customs  sunk  irretrievably  into  a  sordid  and  vulgar 
commercialism,  or  do  their  ways  of  operation  and 
tendencies  of  reform  point  to  a  possible  revival  of 
industrial  idealism  ?  No  one  can  recall  to  himself 
the  many  and  flagrant  instances  of  cynical  self- 
interest  and  unscrupulous  scheming  which  have  of 
late  been  brought  to  light,  without  being  tempted 
by  the  creed  of  social  pessimism.  No  indictment 
of  the  existing  industrial  world,  and  no  provocation 
of  revolution,  is  so  serious  as  the  suicidal  attempts 
still  recklessly  made  to  maintain  the  present  condi- 
tions of  industry  by  brutahty,  bribery,  or  fraud. 
Yet  if  one  can  detach  his  attention  from  these 
shocking  evidences  of  business  sins,  and  consider 
the  nature  of  business  as  a  whole,  in  its  normal 
processes  of  buying  and  selling,  producing  and  dis- 
tributing, nothing  is  clearer  than  the  fact  that  this 
organization  of  industry  is  essentially  and  on  a 
vast  scale  an  enterprise  of  social  service.  The 
process  may  be  often  interrupted  and  at  times 
diverted  from  its  natural  course,  but  in  its  total  effect 
and  general  intention  business  life  exists  and 
flourishes  only  as  it  serves  social  need.  There  are, 
an  EngUsh  economist  has  said,  "risks  and  uncer- 
tainties in  business  .  .  .  but  to  the  men  of  business 
who  are  trying  to  do  business  the  gambling  ele-  , 
ment  is  a  difficulty  and  a  nuisance.  Business  of 
every  kind  is  organized  to  cater  for  the  wants  of 
the  public."  ^     Capital,  in  other  words,  is  valueless 

^  Cunningham,  "Christianity  and  Social  Questions,"  1910,  p.  195. 


96      THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

unless  it  is  set  to  earn,  and  the  best  way  for  it  to 
earn  is  to  serve.  The  most  obvious  source  of 
personal  profit  is  to  discover  what  other  people 
want  and  to  make  it  for  them  or  bring  it  to  them. 
A  brilliant  young  Englishman  has  lately  remarked 
that  "the  horror  of  our  present  European  civiliza- 
tion" is  in  its  being  "predominantly  selfish."^ 
That  is  as  if  one  should  say  that  the  trade  of  the 
sea,  because  it  is  predominated  by  the  desire  for 
gain,  is  a  horrid  scene  of  piracy.  Selfishness  is 
indeed  conspicuous  enough  in  business,  and  pirates 
and  buccaneers  still  roam  the  seas  of  modem  trade. 
But  the  vast  majority  of  business  men,  like  the 
vast  majority  of  mariners,  apply  their  self-interest, 
not  to  scuttling  rivals,  but  to  supplying  the  markets 
of  the  world,  and  get  profits  in  their  business,  not 
by  robbing  other  people,  but  by  serving  them. 
The  practical  condition  of  the  business  world,  in 
short,  is  like  that  already  considered  in  the  institu- 
tion of  the  family.  Abuses  are  so  conspicuous  and 
sensational  publicity  is  so  exaggerated,  that  the  pro- 
portions of  truth  may  be  quite  obscured  and  the 
foundations  of  integrity  seem  to  totter.  The  fact 
is,  however,  that  just  as  the  normal  modem  family 
is  quite  unscathed  by  temptations  to  wandering 
desire,  so  the  normal  business  man  buys  and  sells, 
employs  and  invests,  without  a  taint  of  the  treachery 
or  knavery  which  occasionally  infect  business  fife. 
Instead  of  being  involved  in  a  system  of  lucrative 

»  W.  Temple,  "The  Kingdom  of  God,"  1912,  p.  75. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  BUSINESS  WORLD      97 

looting,  he  is  engaged  in  one  of  the  most  creditable 
of  human  occupations,  making  or  exchanging  what 
people  need,  and  receiving  from  them  what  he 
needs  himself.  Normal  business  is  of  advantage 
to  buyer  and  seller  alike.  "The  honorable  pur- 
chaser and  the  honorable  seller,"  Bishop  Westcott 
once  said,  "meet  in  business  for  the  work  of  citizens. 
Their  interest  is  the  same  —  the  right  support  of 
life."  ^  Instead  of  being  pirates,  they  are  pro- 
ducers and  providers.  Instead  of  robbing  people 
of  what  they  have,  they  are  giving  them  what  they 
want. 

Indeed,  as  one  thus  reconsiders  the  nature  of 
business,  he  observes  that  its  permanent  stabihty 
and   efficiency  depend,   not   on    the  evils  which 
disfigure   it,   but   on   the   virtues   which    it    pro- 
motes;    not   on   its   yielding    to    corruption,  but 
on  its  preservation  of  incorruptibility.     The  vast 
majority  of  transactions  in  modem  business  are 
made    on    credit,    and    a    system    of    credit    is 
essentially  a  system  of  trust,  involving  a  general  ; 
condition  of  trustworthiness.     If  it  were  not  the 
general    practice    of    business    men    to    tell   the 
truth  and  keep  their  contracts  the   entire  fabric 
of    modem    trade    would    crumble    in    a    night.   . 
Even   in   that    centre  of    popular    reproach,  the   \ 
stock  market,  negotiations  involving  great  sums  of 
money  are  ratified  by  a  word  or  a  sign.     In  short,   -, 
the  foundation  of  modem  business  is  business  honor.   1 

^  "Christian  Social  Union  Addresses,"  1903,  p.  63.  / 

a 


98      THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

This  truth  is  not  merely  of  general,  but 
quite  as  legitimately  of  personal,  significance.  If 
business  were  essentially  a  form  of  gambling  or 
robbery,  it  would  be  reasonable  to  believe,  as  is 
now  often  assumed,  that  the  most  lucrative  en- 
dowments of  a  business  man  are  audacity,  un- 
scrupulousness,  and  cunning.  The  fact  is,  however, 
that  for  one  man  who  succeeds  in  business  by  luck 
or  by  fraud,  a  thousand  owe  their  standing  in  the 
business  world  to  integrity  and  incorruptibility. 
When  an  employer  is  filling  a  position  or  proposing 
an  advancement,  he  looks,  it  is  true,  for  the  quali- 
ties of  sagacity  and  alertness,  but  with  much  more 
seriousness  he  looks  for  the  underlying  qualities  of 
loyalty,  insight,  and  trustworthiness.  Character 
is,  on  the  whole,  the  best  foundation  for  a  com- 
petency. The  profits  of  honorable  and  persistent 
energy  are  in  the  long  run  vastly  greater  than  the 
profits  of  commercial  piracy  or  speculative  reck- 
lessness. The  stream  of  business  may  be  tem- 
porarily blocked,  and  appHed  to  desolation  rather 
than  to  irrigation,  but  in  the  normal  course  of 
trade  the  stream  of  supply  waters  the  fields  of 
demand,  and  the  products  of  those  fields  in  their 
turn  feed  the  engineers  who  direct  the  fertilizing 
stream. 

Here,  also,  it  may  be  added,  is  a  test  which 
can  be  applied  to  various  forms  of  business,  and 
may,  in  some  degree,  be  made  a  basis  for 
judgment  of  the  relative  standing  of  various  call- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  BUSINESS  WORLD      99 

ings.  How  directly  does  any  form  of  business  con- 
tribute to  social  service ;  or  in  what  degree  does  it 
obstruct  or  oppose  the  general  good  ?  Some  forms 
of  business,  like  farming,  manufacturing,  the  de- 
velopment of  new  regions,  new  power,  or  new 
discoveries,  may  be  at  the  same  time  lucrative  to 
the  individual  and  enriching  to  the  community. 
Unless  perverted  in  method,  they  naturally  bless 
both  those  who  give  and  those  who  take.  Other 
forms  of  business,  like  the  speculating  in  futures 
and  shuffling  of  securities  which  make  up  much  of 
what  is  known  as  finance,  —  while  they  may  not 
be  discreditable  in  method,  and  may  even  con- 
tribute to  a  system  of  exchange,  —  do  not  so 
directly  add  to  the  volume  of  social  service,  and 
instead  of  being  regarded  —  as  is  now  generally 
the  case  —  as  the  aristocracy  of  business,  may  be 
ranked  among  the  less  honorable,  even  though 
necessary  calHngs. 

In  the  feudal  system  of  ancient  Japan 
the  plain  people,  below  the  noble  and  the 
military  class,  were  classified  in  three  groups, — 
farmers,  artisans,  and  merchants.  But  of  these 
the  farmers  held  the  highest  rank ;  next  below  were 
the  craftsmen ;  and  at  the  bottom  of  the  social 
scale  stood  the  commercial  population  from 
bankers  to  shopkeepers.  Trading  with  money  was 
less  creditable  than  agriculture  or  skilled  labor. 
The  land  and  the  forge  soiled  the  hands  less  than 
the    counting-house   and    the   shop.     The   condi- 


lOO     THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

tions  of  modem  life  may  modify  this  classification, 
—  as  indeed  has  happened  in  Japan,  —  yet  it 
remains  true  that  a  good  test  which  a  young 
man  may  apply  to  the  choice  of  a  business  career 
is  this  test  of  serviceableness.  Let  him  associate 
himself  as  closely  as  is  practicable  with  creative, 
productive,  or  inventive  affairs.  Let  him  make 
two  blades  of  grass  grow  where  one  grew  before. 
Let  him  make  grain  grow  where  there  was  a  desert 
before.  Let  him  be  ambitious  to  make  things, 
rather  than  to  make  money ;  to  prosper  by  service 
rather  than  by  loot;  to  bear  another's  burdens 
rather  than  to  "bear"  another's  stocks.  Business 
thus  conducted  is  not  only  consistent  with  the 
Christian  life,  but  has  its  natural  issue,  not  probably 
in  a  vast  fortune  with  its  equally  vast  temptations, 
but  under  the  fortunate  conditions  of  American 
civilization,  in  an  honorable  and  sufficient  liveli- 
hood, and  may  permit  one  to  write  above  the 
hearth  of  a  self-respecting  home  the  great  words 
of  his  Master:  "I  am  among  you  as  one  that 
serveth." 

These  indications  of  the  essential  character  of 
business  life  are,  at  least  in  some  degree,  reassuring. 
Difficult  as  it  may  be  to  adjust  commercialism  to 
idealism  and  to  achieve  success  through  service,  it 
does  not  appear  to  be  an  undertaking  which  is  directly 
contrary  to  nature,  or  a  hopeless  struggle  against  a 
resistless  current.  There  are,  it  seems,  elements  and 
aspects  of  business,  even  as  it  now  is,  which  are  not 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  BUSINESS  WORLD    lOI 

inconsistent  with  the  Law  of  Service,  and  which 
should  suggest  some  hesitation  before  committing 
oneself  to  a  creed  of  social  destruction,  or  repeating 
with  the  Persian  poet :  — 

"Could  you  and  I  conspire 
To  grasp  this  sorry  scheme  of  things  entire, 
Would  we  not  dash  it  into  bits,  and  then 
Removdd  it  nearer  to  the  heart's  desire  ?  " 

Yet  this  story  of  incomplete  adjustment  and  misused  ^ 
opportimity  should  also  teach  to  every  thoughtful  i 
man  of  business  grave  lessons  concerning  his  imme-  1 
diate  duty.     If  business  is  not  reformed,  it  is  likely  to 
be  transformed.     The  alternative  to  a  violent  eco- 
nomic revolution  is  an  accelerated  economic  evolu- 
tion.    If  capital  is  to  escape  confiscation,  it  must 
accept  consecration.     Nothing  is  more  obvious  than 
the  fact  that  the  present  industrial  order  is  now  on 
probation,  and  that  its  justification  must  be  found 
in  its  contributing  both  to  utility  and  to  justice. 
If  it  does  not  serve,  it  must  surrender. 

At  this  point,  then,  one  is  forced  to  realize  that  a 
large  proportion  of  business  men  are  promoting  a 
serious  crisis,  not  so  much  by  their  wickedness  as 
by  their  stupidity.  Administration  has  suppressed 
imagination.  They  are  so  preoccupied  by  the 
day's  work  and  the  year's  profit  as  to  be  unaware  that 
a  new  world  is  knocking  at  their  door.  While  the 
disastrous  strike  at  Lawrence  in  1 913  was  in  prog- 
ress, the  treasurer  of  a  mill  testified  that  until  the 


102     THE  CHRISTIAN   LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

stonn  of  unrest  broke  over  his  head,  he  had  never 
heard  of  syndicalism  or  seen  its  cloud  approaching. 
Thought,  reading,  and  discussion  concerning  eco- 
nomic questions,  not  to  speak  of  the  imaginings  of 
a  better  future,  are  more  habitual  among  wage- 
earners  than  among  employers.  Custom,  tradi- 
tion, routine,  and  short-sightedness  still  dominate 
many  forms  of  business  and  make  them  the  fruitful 
soil  of  disorder  and  revolt.  Of  a  considerable  section 
of  the  most  privileged  class  it  might  be  prophesied, 
in  the  words  of  Jesus,  "  They  were  eating  and 
drinking,  marrying  and  giving  in  marriage  .  .  and 
knew  not  until  the  flood  came  and  took  them 
all  away."  .^_^- 

Here,  then,  the  way  of  business  wisdom  — 
not  to  say  of  business  sanity  —  becomes  clear. 
The  many  and  varied  schemes,  now  so  vigor- 
ously undertaken  by  intelUgent  employers, 
of  conciliation,  arbitration,  cooperation,  profit- 
sharing,  and  industrial  partnership,  are  not  to 
be  regarded  as  forms  of  beneficence  or  magna- 
nimity. To  initiate  them  in  the  spirit  of  pater- 
nahsm  or  patronage  or  charity  is,  in  the  present 
temper  of  the  working-classes,  to  foredoom  them 
to  failure.  They  represent  a  candid  recognition 
of  the  fact  that  the  wage-system  in  its  bare  economic 
form  must  be  supplemented,  if  it  is  not  to  be  sup- 
planted ;  that  the  hne  of  division  between  employer 
and  employed  must  be  effaced  by  fratemalism,  if  it 
is  not  to  be  obliterated  by  sociahsm.     Schemes  of 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  BUSINESS  WORLD    IO3 

industrial  reform  must  be  incorporated  with  the 
business,  adapted  to  the  type  of  industry  con- 
cerned, and  charged  to  production.  The  proper 
payment  for  them  is  not  gratitude,  but  loyalty. 
They  are  one  form  of  evidence  that  the  industrial 
order,  imperfect  as  it  is,  may  be  developed  by  intelli- 
gence and  ingenuity  into  a  system  of  mutual  ad- 
vantage, which  is  certainly  more  accessible,  and  may 
perhaps  be  more  durable,  than  the  vague  ventures 
which  social  revolution  now  so  lightly  proposes  to 
make. 

Thus  by  an  unexpected  and  tortuous  road  the  \ 
last  developments  of  business  Hfe  have  brought  the  \ 
modem  world  round  to  new  appUcations  of  Christian 
idealism.    The  teaching  of  Jesus,  which  announces/ 1 
that  social  stability  is  dependent  on  social  serviced  | 
is  verified  by  the  industrial  schemes  which  the  mostl  ' 
discerning  of  employers  are  utilizing  to-day.    TheV 
conditions  of  the  modern  business  world,  with  all 
their  shocking  evidences  of  iniquity  and  greed,  do  not 
completely    preclude   a    practicable    Christianity. 
Marcus  AureUus  said  of  the  luxuries  of  Rome,  "It 
is  possible  for  a  man  to  live  in  a  palace  without  want- 
ing .  .  .  such-Uke  show."  ^    With  the  same  recog- 
nition of  grave,  yet  not  unsurmountable,  difficulties 
one  may  now  say,  It  is  possible  for  a  man  to  live 
in  the  world  of  business,  with  all  its  sins  of  gam- 
bling  and  speculation,  without  wanting  such-like 
show.     Commercial  opportunity  is  like  the  exceeding 

1  "Meditations,"  I,  17;  tr.  Long,  1864. 


I04     THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN   WORLD 

high  mountain  where  the  devil  showed  to  Jesus  the 
kingdoms  of  this  world  and  said,  "All  these  things 
will  I  give  thee  if  thou  wilt  fall  down  and  worship 
me  " ;  and  the  business  man  of  to-day  is  a  simpleton 
if  he  does  not  recognize  that  at  any  moment  he 
may  be  tempted  of  the  devil.  Yet,  it  is  precisely 
this  victory  of  the  Christian  Hfe  over  the  solicita- 
tions of  commerciaHsm  which  creates  leadership 
in  the  modem  world  as  it  did  in  Galilee.  The  man 
of  business  is  called  to  wrestle  against  the  rulers  of 
the  darkness  of  this  world,  against  spiritual  wicked- 
ness in  high  places,  but  it  is  not  impossible  for  him 
to  withstand  in  the  evil  day,  and  —  what  is  even 
harder — having  done  all,  and  attained  the  possi- 
bility of  luxury  and  ostentation,  still  to  stand. 

The  conflicting  currents  of  modem  business  life 
meet,  as  two  rivers,  the  Arve  and  the  Rhone,  meet 
near  Geneva.  One  is  a  glacial  torrent,  swift  and  tur- 
bid with  the  melting  of  the  snows ;  the  other  a  broad 
stream,  flowing  down  through  pasture  banks  in  an 
im troubled  current.  For  a  time  the  muddy  torrent 
seems  in  complete  control,  and  the  transparent  Rhone 
is  submerged  and  defiled ;  but  by  degrees  the  glacial 
impurities  sink  beneath  the  larger  stream,  and  the 
Rhone  sweeps  unpolluted  to  the  sea.  So  meet  the 
forces  of  commercialism  and  idealism  in  modem 
trade,  and  to  many  a  looker-on  it  seems  as  if  the  result- 
ing river  must  be  a  turbulent  and  destmctive  stream. 
Steadily,  however,  let  the  springs  of  ideaUsm,  which 
lie  far  back  in  the  high  places  of  Christian  faith, 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  BUSINESS  WORLD    105 

send  down  their  full  supply,  and  by  degrees  the 
angry  rush  of  reckless  self-mterest  may  be  sub- 
merged in  a  clearer  stream,  and  the  Rhone  of  a 
purified  industrialism  may  flow  to  the  ocean  of 
human  service,  imvexed  and  free. 


IV 

THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE   AND   THE   MAKING   OF  MONEY 

The  indications  of  the  nature  of  modem  business 
which  have  been  observed,  though  they  may  appear 
to  make  the  Christian  life  not  wholly  impracticable, 
are  of  too  general  a  character  to  give  definite 
direction  among  the  immediate  problems  of  one's 
own  affairs.  Behind  these  large  aspects  of  the 
industrial  world  He  more  intimate  questions  of  the 
use  and  abuse  of  money  which  meet  one  in  the  daily 
conduct  of  a  modem  life.  One  may  dream  of  a 
time  when  private  ownership  shall  be  looked  back 
on  as  a  nightmare  and  money  shall  have  become  a 
discarded  symbol ;  but,  for  the  moment,  here  is  a 
world  in  which  one  must  in  some  way  earn  his 
living,  invest  and  spend  his  money,  and  make  such 
adjustment  as  is  practicable  between  his  conscience 
and  the  existing  order  of  industry.  Is,  then,  the 
Christian  life  practicable  here?  Can  one  get  any 
guidance  from  the  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ  among 
the  perplexing  problems  of  his  own  business  affairs  ? 
What  shall  he  do  to  be  saved,  not  merely  in  his 
Church,  but  in  his  ofl&ce,  or  his  counting-room,  or 
on  his  farm  ? 

These  questions  of  the  use  of  money  can  have,  it 
is  true,  but  meagre  interest  for  that  great  number  of 

xo6 


CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  MAKING  OF  MONEY      107 

people  who  have  no  money  to  use,  and  who  live  in 
daily  apprehension  lest  even  their  daily  wage  may 
fail.  To  consider  the  ethics  of  property  may  seem 
like  cruel  irony  while  the  antecedent  problem  of  the 
distribution  of  property  is  still  unsolved.  Yet, 
even  though  the  uses  of  money  are  unimportant  to 
those  who  have  no  money,  there  remain  a  great 
many  people  to  whom  money,  whether  they  have 
much  or  little  of  it,  presents  a  daily  problem  and 
care,  and  the  case  of  these  people  has  had  compar- 
atively little  consideration.  Reformers  and  phi- 
lanthropists have  apphed  themselves  either  to  the 
case  of  the  very  poor,  or  to  the  not  less  pathetic  case 
of  the  very  rich.  How  to  relieve  tragic  destitution, 
and  how  to  restrict  vast  accumulation,  have  been 
questions  with  which  social  legislation  and  agitation 
have  been  almost  exclusively  concerned.  It  was, 
indeed,  confidently  taught  by  Marx  a  generation 
ago  that  modem  society  would  soon  and  inevitably 
be  divided  into  these  two  groups,  the  few  that  have 
and  the  many  that  have  not,  the  Bourgeoisie  and 
the  Proletariat,  each  with  its  own  aims  and  its  own 
class-consciousness;  and  that  the  irrepressible 
conflict  between  these  two  classes  could  have  no 
other  issue  than  the  victory  of  the  many  and  the 
restoration  of  wealth  to  those  who  had  created  it. 
"Centralization  of  the  means  of  production  and 
socialization  of  labor  at  last  reach  a  point  where 
they  become  incompatible  with  the  capitalistic 
integument.    The  integvunent  is  burst   asunder. 


108     THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

The  knell  of  capitalist  private  property  sounds. 
.  .  ,  We  have  the  expropriation  of  a  few  usurpers 
by  the  mass  of  the  people."  ^ 

The  course  of  economic  history  since  the  day  of 
Marx  has,  however,  not  only  failed  to  verify  this 
confident  prophecy,  but  has  taken  a  direction  alto- 
gether unforeseen  by  him.  Great  accumulations  of 
capital  have,  it  is  true,  fallen  into  a  few  hands,  and 
great  numbers  of  wage-earners  still  find  themselves 
without  a  margin  of  income,  but  a  much  more 
remarkable  characteristic  of  the  present  time  is  the 
unprecedented  increase  of  the  middle  class,  above 
poverty  and  below  wealth,  and  quite  unaware  of 
that  chasm  which,  according  to  Marx,  is  ever 
widening  between  them  and  a  stable  competency. 
This  middle  group  is  indeed  not  so  much  a  class  as  a 
movement;  not  a  fixed,  but  a  fluid  mass.  As  a 
whole  it  is  on  the  way  up  rather  than  on  the  way 
down,  a  rising  rather  than  an  ebbing  tide.  It  is 
this  middle-class  multitude  which  gives  to  modem 
society  its  vigor  and  hope,  and  has,  on  the  whole, 
the  best  chance  of  personal  and  domestic  happiness. 
The  statistics  of  savings  banks  and  of  life-insurance 
companies,  the  enormous  multiplication  of  modest 
homes,  and  the  growth  of  stock  corporations  with 
their  thousands  of  small  holdings  are  conclusive 
witnesses  of  this  new  factor  in  the  social  problem. 
"Wherever  we  look  we  find  a  steady  increase  of 
the  middle  class.  .  .  .     Economic  development  has 

1  "  Capital,"  tr.  Aveling,  1889,  I,  p.  789. 


CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  MAKING  OF  MONEY      109 

taken  a  turn  which  Marx  did  not  foresee."^  In 
fact,  there  is  a  touch  of  irony  in  the  war-cry  of  a 
"class-conscious  conflict,"  when  so  many  who 
repeat  the  Marxian  formula  are  not  themselves  of 
the  class  which,  according  to  that  formula,  is  alone 
to  survive. 

The  normal  condition  of  American  life  is, 
in  short,  neither  one  of  vast  wealth,  nor  one 
of  hopeless  destitution,  but  one  which  begins  with 
modest  self-support  and  ends  with  a  substantial 
competency.  To  this  central  body  of  American 
citizenship  —  the  farmers,  the  small  investors,  the 
professions,  and  the  great  majority  of  persons 
employed  in  business  —  the  Marxian  theory  of 
' '  increasing  misery ' '  is  almost  unintelligible.  They 
acknowledge  no  irremediable  fixity  of  condition. 
They  are  not  hstening  for  "the  knell  of  private 
property."  They  find  themselves  living  in  a 
mobile,  hopeful,  expanding  world.  They  expect 
much  for  themselves,  and  still  more  for  their 
children.  They  educate  their  children  for  a  higher 
social  standing  than  their  own.  They  observe  not 
only  that  many  of  the  very  rich  began  life  without 
money,  but  that  many  of  the  most  distinguished  of 
inventors,  administrators,  and  politicians  began 
life  without  exceptional  opportimity.  They  are, 
therefore,  with  good  reason,  sanguine  and  ambitious. 

^  Simkhovitch,  "Marxism  versus  Socialism,"  1913,  pp.  94,  97. 
The  entire  chapter  on  "The  Disappearance  of  the  Middle  Class" 
is  conclusive. 


no     THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

The  appeal  to  class-consciousness  fails  to  touch 
them  because  they  have  not  resigned  themselves 
to  the  consciousness  of  belonging  to  a  class.  The 
way  up  is  open  to  the  humblest  of  them,  if  he  be 
sober,  frugal,  honest,  and  soimd  in  health. 

This  vast  and  rapidly  increasing  majority — the 
forgotten  millions  of  inconspicuous  and  industrious 
lives  —  are  not  commonly  regarded,  and  do  not  re- 
gard themselves,  as  a  social  problem.  They  are 
simply  minding  their  own  business,  reasonably  secure 
from  the  risks  of  extreme  poverty  and  comparatively 
imtempted  by  the  risks  of  excessive  wealth.  Their 
case  is  too  prosaic  and  imdramatic  to  attract 
attention;  yet  in  the  conduct  of  their  business 
affairs  they  are  confronted  by  problems  of  the  use 
of  money  which  are  hardly  less  perplexing  than 
those  which  meet  the  very  rich  or  the  very  poor. 
Can  one,  they  ask,  expect  to  make  a  living  without 
running  the  risk  of  losing  a  life  ?  Can  he  use  his 
money  without  abusing  his  neighbor?  Is  the 
Christian  life  consistent  with  the  prudent  manage- 
ment of  one's  own  affairs?  Dismissing  from 
consideration  for  a  moment  the  marginal  problems 
of  excessive  wealth  and  hopeless  poverty,  how 
shall  that  central  group  of  the  population  who  have 
some  money  to  use,  so  use  it  as  to  meet  the  test  of 
Jesus  Christ?  "Ye  cannot  serve  God  and  Mam- 
mon," he  said  in  one  of  his  most  unqualified  utter- 
ances ;  but  then  again  he  said,  "  Make  to  yourselves 
friends  of  the  Mammon  of  imrighteousness."    Is  it 


CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  MAKING  OF  MONEY      III 

possible  to  be  a  friend  of  Mammon  without  being  \ 
a  servant  of  Mammon?    May  one  in  the  use  of  / 
his  money  be  a  servant,  not  of  Mammon,  but  of  | 
God,  and  through  friendly  use  of  the  Mammon  of  / 
unrighteousness   be   received  into  the  everlasting! 
habitations  ? 

These  questions  may  be  restated  in  a  somewhat 
more  systematic  form.  If  one  discriminates  among 
the  uses  of  money,  he  comes  upon  three  different 
ways  in  which  money  may  be  employed,  and  each 
way  has  its  accompanying  moral  problems  and 
risks.  There  is,  first,  the  use  of  money  in  the 
making  of  more  money,  or  the  ethical  problem  of 
property;  there  is,  secondly,  the  use  of  money  in 
spending,  or  the  ethical  problem  of  luxury;  there 
is,  thirdly,  the  use  of  money  in  giving,  or  the  ethical 
problem  of  benevolence.  Each  of  these  personal 
problems  meets  in  varying  degree  that  great  num- 
ber of  citizens  whose  level  of  income  is  above  that 
of  mere  subsistence ;  and  each  reopens  the  question 
of  the  practicability  of  the  Christian  life.  Can  one 
administer  his  property,  regulate  his  expenditure, 
and  direct  his  philanthropy,  in  ways  which  are  con- 
sistent with  Christian  discipleship  ?  What  are 
the  principles  of  ownership,  the  limits  of  extrava- 
gance, and  the  scope  of  responsibility,  which  must 
be  accepted  by  a  Christian  hfe  in  a  modem  world  ? 

As  to  the  general  question,  now  hotly  debated, 
whether  the  institution  of  private  ownership  itself 
is  consistent  with  social  justice,  whether,  in  the 


112     THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN   WORLD 

phrase  of  Proudhon,  "Property  is  robbery," 
whether  "It  is  right  to  rob  the  robbers,"  no  specific 
answer  can  be  derived  from  the  teaching  of  Jesus. 
He  lived  in  a  world  where  such  a  revolution  could 
not  have  been  proposed  by  any  sane  teacher,  and  if 
it  were,  would  not  have  been  intelligible  to  those  who 
heard.  The  existing  fabric  of  social  and  political 
life  was  accepted  by  Jesus  as  the  material  out  of 
which  the  Kingdom  of  God  was  to  be  made. 
Primitive  Christianity  developed,  it  is  true,  a 
temporary  communism,  in  which  the  confident 
expectation  of  a  Messianic  reign  led  the  first  dis- 
ciples to  have  "all  things  common";  but  that 
Pentecostal  communism  was  both  a  transient  and 
a  voluntary  arrangement.  It  was  the  common 
ownership  of  a  loving  family  rather  than  the  legal 
abolition  of  the  institution  of  property.  Each 
disciple  might  keep  his  own  possessions,  but  "not 
one  of  them  said  that  aught  of  the  things  which  he 
possessed  was  his  own." 

Modern  agitators,  therefore,  miss  the  note  of  the 
Gospels  when  they  describe  the  teaching  of  Jesus  as 
a  message  of  social  revolution,  and  limit  the  range 
of  his  sympathy  to  a  single  group.  "Whether  he 
was  a  metaphysical  personage,"  it  is  said,  "or,  like 
us,  one  of  the  sons  of  time  and  the  children  of  men, 
the  fact  is  indisputable :  Jesus  Uved,  moved,  and 
had  his  being  among  working-folk.  As  a  day- 
laborer,  and  later  as  a  leader  of  day-laborers, 
there  is  recorded  not  one  friendship  of  his  with 


CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  MAKING  OF  MONEY      II3 

people  who  were  not  in  the  worker-crowd,  or  else 
members  of  the  privileged  class  who  showed 
temperamentally  a  leaning  toward  the  worker- 
crowd.  .  .  .  From  the  cradle  to  crucifixion,  he 
was  proletarily  environed.  .  .  .  He  was  utterly 
of  the  disinherited  class."  ^  Fortunately,  however, 
for  the  influence  of  Jesus  on  the  history  of  the 
world,  the  record  of  his  life  reports  no  such 
restricted  definition  of  his  purpose.  Many  an 
outcast  and  beggar,  it  is  true,  found  himself  re- 
stored to  courage  and  self-respect  by  the 
sympathy  of  the  wise  teacher,  but  the  circle  of  his 
intimacy  held  many  who  were  by  no  means 
of  the  disinherited  class.  The  fishermen  who 
were  the  first  to  become  disciples  were  em- 
ployers rather  than  employed;  they  "left  their 
father  with  the  hired  servants  and  went  after  him." 
"We  have  forsaken  all,"  said  Peter,  "and  followed 
thee."  At  the  home  of  Matthew  Jesus  sat  "with 
many  tax-gatherers  and  sinners. "  "I  must  abide  at 
thy  house,"  said  Jesus  to  the  rich  Zacchaeus. 
"  And  certain  women,  .  .  .  Mary,  called  Magdalene, 
.  .  .  and  Joanna,  the  wife  of  Herod's  steward,  and 
Susanna,  and  many  others,  .  .  .  ministered  to  him  of 
their  substance."  However  compassionately,  then, 
the  heart  of  Jesus  turned  to  the  poor  and  the  toiler, 
it  is  manifestly  inaccurate  to  affirm  that  "  there  is 
recorded  not  one  friendship  of  his  with  people  who 

1  Bouck  Wliite,  "The  Carpenter  and  the  Rich  Man,"  1914, 

p.  sff. 


114     THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

were  not  in  the  worker-crowd  "  ;  or  that  his  thought 
was  "fundamentally  concerned  with  the  lot  of  the 
lower-most  men  in  the  social  mass."  The  fact  is 
that  the  passion  for  social  revolution  which  encour- 
ages such  an  inference  was  not  the  passion  closest 
to  his  heart.  He  was  seeking  recruits  for  the  King- 
dom of  God,  and  whenever  he  found  a  response  to 
his  ideal  of  a  world  dedicated  to  God,  whether  it  was 
in  blind  Bartimeus  by  the  roadside,  or  rich  Zac- 
chaeus  in  his  home  at  Jericho,  he  said  with  equal 
appreciation:  "Thy  faith  hath  made  thee 
whole";  "This  dayissalvation  come  to  thishouse." 
"In  short,  his  categories  of  social  judgment  were 
not  those  of  wealth  and  poverty."  ^  Whatever 
social  revolution  may  be  the  logical  consequence  of 
his  teaching,  he  was  not  a  social  revolutionist. 
It  is  impossible  to  convert  the  teaching  of  Jesus 
into  that  of  an  industrial  agitator.  His  purpose 
was  not  revolution,  but  revelation.  He  was 
primarily  concerned,  not  with  the  distribution  of 
goods,  but  with  the  inspiration  of  goodness.  He 
cared  less  for  social  classification  than  for  social 
sanctification.  He  was  not  a  socialist,  but  a 
saviour. 

Yet  it  does  not  follow  from  this  apparent  limita- 
tion that  the  teaching  of  Jesus  is  either  silent,  or 
indulgent  concerning  the  ethics  of  property.  On  the 
contrary,  and  in  words  whose  severity  and  irony 

*Cf.  F.  G.  Peabody,  "Jesus  Christ  and  the  Social  Question," 
1900,  p.  205. 


CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  MAKING  OF  MONEY      II5 

no  commentary  can  obscure,  Jesus  recognizes  the 
tremendous  risks  which  the  possession,  or  even  the 
pursuit,  of  money  involves.  "How  hardly,"  he 
says,  "shall  they  that  have  riches  enter  into  the 
Kingdom  of  God."  "It  is  easier  for  a  camel  to  go 
through  a  needle's  eye  than  for  a  rich  man  to  enter 
into  the  Kingdom  of  God."  "Lay  not  up  for 
yourselves  treasures  upon  earth."  "A  man's  life 
consisteth  not  in  the  abundance  of  the  things 
which  he  possesseth."  The  modem  world  ap- 
preciates, as  perhaps  no  generation  since  the 
time  of  Jesus  Christ  has  done,  the  insight  and 
precision  of  these  solemn  declarations.  It  is  still 
very  hard  for  those  who  have  riches,  and  often 
harder  still  for  their  children,  to  enter  into  the 
Elingdom.  The  abundance  of  the  things  which 
one  possesses  may  easily  crowd  out  the  ideals  in 
which  his  life  consists.  The  gaining  of  the  world 
may  be  the  losing  of  one's  soul.  When  Jesus  de- 
manded of  the  rich  young  ruler  that  he  sell 
whatever  he  had  and  give  it  to  the  poor,  it  may 
have  been  —  as  Tolstoi,  in  his  own  case,  found  it 
to  be  —  not  the  harder,  but  the  easier  way  of  re- 
nunciation which  was  proposed.  It  may  be  more 
difficult  for  one  to  use  money  than  to  abandon  it. 
Many  a  pious  soul  in  the  days  of  the  monastic 
system  took  the  vow  of  poverty,  not  because  it  was 
harder  to  live  in  a  monastery  than  in  the  world, 
but  because  it  was  the  easiest  way  of  refuge  from 
the  bewildering  problems  which  one  who  remained 


Il6     THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

in  the  world  had  to  meet.  What  was  occasionally 
true  in  the  Middle  Ages  is  universally  true  to-day. 
The  moral  problems  which  the  uses  of  money  in- 
volve present  the  severest  test  now  offered  to  the 
Christian  Hfe  in  the  modern  world.  "I  cannot  call 
riches,"  said  Bacon,  "but  other  than  the  baggage 
of  virtue ;  the  Roman  word  is  better,  *  impedimenta,' 
for  as  the  baggage  is  to  an  army  so  is  riches  to 
virtue ;  it  cannot  be  spared  or  left  behind,  but  it 
hindereth  the  march."  ^ 

What  is  it,  then,  which  according  to  the  teaching 
of  Jesus  may  justify  the  ownership  of  money? 
On  what  terms  may  one  profess  discipleship  to 
Jesus  Christ  and  yet  concern  one's  self  with  the 
accumulation  and  holding  of  property?  It  has 
already  been  pointed  out  that  the  social  teaching 
of  Jesus  lays  its  central  emphasis  on  the  Law  of 
Service,  and  that  this  test  may  be  directly  applied 
to  the  general  conditions  of  business  hfe.  When, 
however,  one  turns  to  the  immediate  problems  of 
his  own  property-holding,  he  is  met  by  another 
word  of  the  gospels  which  strikes  a  more  personal 
note.  It  is  the  word  Stewardship.  "Give  an 
account  of  thy  stewardship,"  "Who  then  is  that 
faithful  and  wise  steward?  ...  Of  a  truth  his 
Lord  will  make  him  ruler  over  all  that  he  hath." 
According  to  this  teaching,  one  is  not  an  owner, 
but  an  agent.  The  Master  of  the  House  will  come 
at  an  hour  when  his  servant  "looketh  not  for  him," 

1  Essays,  XXXIV,  "  Of  Riches." 


CHRISTIAN   LIFE  AND  THE  MAKING  OF  MONEY      II7 

and  will  either  make  the  steward  "ruler  over  his 
household,"  orwill "  appoint  him  his  portion  with  the 
unbeKevers."  The  steward,  therefore,  is  a  trustee  of 
the  estate  of  God,  a  laborer  together  with  God  for 
the  accomplishing  of  God's  ends.  The  steward 
does  not  "make"  money;  he  directs  the  forces 
of  God  in  their  productive  work.  He  does  not, 
in  the  language  of  modem  slang,  "make  good," 
unless  he  makes  goodness.  His  property  is  not 
subtracted  from  the  common  welfare,  but  added  to 
it.  What  is  wealth  to  him  is  not,  in  Ruskin's 
phrase,  "ill-th"  to  others.  His  fidelity  is  that  "of 
a  steward  of  the  mysteries  of  God" ;  of  whom  "it 
is  required  that  a  man  be  found  faithful."  His 
career  is  successful  if,  as  Milton  said,  — 

"I  have  grace  to  use  it  so, 
As  ever  in  my  great  taskmaster's  eye."  ^ 

No  principle  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus  is  more 
conspicuous  than  this,  yet  none  is  more  difficult  to 
obey.  Nothing  seems  more  obviously  one's  own 
than  one's  money.  One  can  hide  it,  save  it,  spend 
it,  or  invest  it  in  his  own  name  and  for  his  own 
profit.  This,  however,  is  precisely  what  Jesus  so 
suggestively  described  as  "the  deceitfulness  of 
riches"^  the  illusion  of  wealth.  It  deceives  one 
with  the  notion  that  he  is  its  possessor,  when  he 
is,  in  fact,  only  its  steward.    This,  Jesus  says,  is  he 

^  "Sonnet  on  Being  Arrived  at  the  Age  of  Twenty-one  Years." 
^Matt.  XIII,  22  (aTrdrr}  =  trickery,  fraud).     "The  delusions 
of  riches  quite  stifle  the  Message."     (Weymouth.) 


Il8     THE   CHRISTIAN   LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

that  received  the  seed  among  thorns.  The  word 
grows,  but  is  choked.  The  man  finds  himself 
tricked.  He  thought  his  money  was  a  seed  from 
which  good  grain  would  spring,  and  he  discovers 
some  day  that  it  bears  a  crop  of  thorns.  He 
thought  it  would  feed  him,  and  he  finds  that  it 
chokes  him.  A  still  more  tragic  irony  of  fate  may 
meet  the  inheritor  of  wealth,  when  the  thrift  and 
self-denial  of  the  father  which  have  promoted 
acquisition  are  succeeded  by  the  slackening  fibre 
and  increasing  self-indulgence  of  the  son.  Then, 
as  Jesus  said,  there  are  added  to  "the  deceitfulness 
of  riches"  the  further  and  choking  thorns  of  "the 
cares  of  this  world  and  the  lusts  of  other  things" ; 
or,  in  the  solemn  words  of  Paul  to  young  Timothy, 
the  "many  foolish  and  hurtful  lusts  which  drown 
men  in  destruction  and  perdition."  This  is  the 
paradox  of  property.  Toownistoowe.  Possession 
means  obligation.  The  more  one  has  acquired,  the 
more  is  required  of  him.  "To  whom  menjiave  com- 
mitted much,  of  him  they  will  ask  the  more." 
Ownership  is  stewardship.  "Watch,  therefore,  for 
ye  know  neither  the  day  nor  the  hour"  ;  "  Give  an 
account  of  thy  stewardship. ' '  Such  are  the  stringent 
terms  on  which  the  business  of  money-making  is 
consistent  with  the  Christian  life. 

If  one  proceeds  to  inquire  how  this  Law 
of  Stewardship  may  be  practically  tested  in  his  own 
experience,  he  is  met  by  two  ways  of  its  operation, 
which  are  the  evidences  of  its  vitality  and  force. 


CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND   THE  MAKING  OF  MONEY      II9 

The  first  of  these  is  the  way  of  utilization;  the 
second  is  the  way  of  humanization.  The  first  is 
but  a  special  form  of  that  principle  which  the  author 
of  "  Ecce  Homo,"  in  one  of  his  noblest  chapters, 
called  Positive  Morality.  The  Christian,  Professor 
Seeley  said,  has  passed  from  passive  to  active  human- 
ity;  from  "a  feeble  restraining  power  to  an  inspir- 
ing passion";  from  "prohibitions  to  commands." 
"The  old  legal  formula  began,  Hhou  shall  not^ 
the  new  begins  with  Hhou  shall.'"'  "The  sinner 
whom  Christ  habitually  denounces  is  he  who  has 
done  nothing;  the  Priest  and  Levite  who  passed 
by ;  the  rich  man  at  whose  gate  Lazarus  lay  while 
*no  man  did  aught  for  him' ;  the  servant  who  hid 
his  talent  in  a  napkin."  Efficiency,  productive- 
ness, activity,  social  obhgation,  are  essential  ele- 
ments in  Christian  ethics.  Passivity,  complacency, 
an  introspective  and  ineffective  virtue,  are  signs 
that  one  has  not  passed  from  the  Law  to  the 
Gospel.  "Condemnation  passed  under  the  Mosaic 
law  upon  him  who  had  sinned;  .  .  .  Christ's 
condemnation  is  pronounced  upon  those  who  had 
not  done  good." 

This  general  law  of  Positive  Morahty  is  re- 
peatedly applied  by  Jesus  to  the  commercial  life. 
Money  is  made  to  be  utilized.  Its  deceitfulness  con- 
sists, not  only  in  its  tricking  one  into  regarding 
it  as  one's  own,  but  in  the  further  illusion  that 
one  may  keep  it  his  own.  To  remain  one's  own, 
it  must  be  utilized  for  the  common  good.     That 


I20     THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

only  which  one  makes  serviceable  he  keeps. 
The  servant  who  digs  in  the  earth  and  hides  his 
Lord's  money  is  cast  into  the  outer  darkness. 
The  conventionally  good  are  confronted  by  the 
rebuke:  "When  ye  shall  have  done  all  those 
things  which  are  commanded  you,  say,  We  are 
unprofitable  servants :  we  have  done  that  which 
was  our  duty  to  do."  In  either  case  the  unprofit- 
ableness is  not  in  doing  wrong,  but  in  doing  nothing, 
and  the  tragic  penalty  to  which  the  man  with  one 
talent  is  condemned  is  not  because  he  has  misused 
his  trust,  but  because  he  has  not  used  it  at  all. 

The  utilization  of  stewardship  thus  prescribed 
begins,  however,  much  earlier  than  is  often  sup- 
posed. It  does  not  merely  dictate  the  generous 
or  beneficent  use  of  money  when  made.  The 
justification  of  property  is  not  determined  by  its 
distribution.  Stewardship  is  primarily  a  matter  of 
business  itself.  It  utilizes  the  forms  of  trade  as 
forms  of  trust.  The  imjust  steward  was  not  con- 
demned because  he  had  been  uncharitable  or  un- 
sympathetic; on  the  contrary,  his  generosity  was 
one  evidence  of  his  guilt.  He  "called  his 
Lord's  debtors"  and  accepted  from  each  a  fraction 
of  his  indebtedness  as  discharging  his  obligation, 
and  for  this  the  Lord  "commended  the  unjust 
steward."  The  culpability  lay  further  back,  in  the 
relation  of  the  steward  to  the  employer.  He  "was 
accused  unto  him  that  he  had  wasted  his  goods." 
No  prodigality  in  distributing  his  Lord's  money 


CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  MAKING  OF  MONEY      121 

could  atone  for  criminality  in  making  it.  The 
ethics  of  stewardship,  in  other  words,  begins  not 
in  one's  giving,  but  in  one's  getting.  Business  Ufe 
is  itself  a  moral  opportunity.  Ideals  not  utilized 
in  business  are  neutralized  in  charity.  The  evi- 
dence of  a  Christian  Ufe  in  the  modem  world  is 
collected,  like  the  income  tax,  "at  the  source." 

It  is,  of  course,  true  that  this  utihzation  of  prop- 
erty is  in  one  aspect  almost  forced  upon  one  by  the 
conditions  of  modem  life.  One  no  longer  hides  his 
money  in  the  grounder  wraps  it  in  a  napkin.  Invest- 
ment in  any  form  applies  money  to  service.  Even 
the  miser  does  not  bury  his  money,  but  sets  it  to 
earn  more  money,  and  in  so  far  may  contribute, 
even  unconsciously,  to  the  general  good.  A  com- 
mercial enterprise  undertaken  for  nothing  else  than 
personal  gain  may  be  swept  into  the  larger  current 
of  common  service  and  fulfil  a  vastly  more  benefi- 
cent end  than  was  designed.  The  purposes  of 
God  may  make  even  the  wrath  of  man  to  praise 
Him. 

The  Christian  teaching,  however,  goes  behind 
the  fact  of  utilization  and  considers  the  motives 
and  consequences  of  evading  or  ignoring  the 
principle  of  stewardship.  A  life,  for  example, 
surrenders  itself  to  the  habits  of  irresponsible 
and  self-indulgent  wealth.  The  instincts  of  re- 
sponsibiHty  are  atrophied  through  disuse.  "Is  it 
not  lawful  for  me,"  one  says,  "to  do  what  I  will 
with  mine  own?"    May  I  not  "fare  sumptuously 


122     THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

every  day  ?"  What  is  the  effect  of  this  unutilized 
stewardship,  not  only  on  others,  but  still  more  on 
him  who  has  thus  wasted  his  Lord's  goods? 
By  one  of  the  most  curious  and  tragic  operations  of 
the  principle  of  utilization,  those  who  refuse  to 
conform  to  it  may  become  the  most  impressive 
witnesses  of  its  force.  These  very  persons  who 
may  fancy  themselves  most  free  from  the  burdens 
of  life,  and  who  propose  to  be  immune  from  social 
obUgations,  not  infrequently  become  the  most 
pitiful  victims  of  shattered  nerves,  spiritual  depres- 
sion, and  the  philosophy  of  despair.  Refusing  to 
utilize  life  for  others,  they  may  lose  the  capacity  to 
utilize  life  for  themselves.  Abandoning  the  prin- 
ciple of  stewardship,  they  may  forfeit  the  right  to 
ownership,  until  at  last  their  enervated  sensibilities 
and  slackened  vitality  may  be  the  evidence,  not 
only  that  the  mastery  of  their  possessions,  but  that 
self-mastery  itself,  is  lost. 

There  is  a  phrase,  appended  by  Jesus  to  his 
parable  of  stewardship,  the  significance  of  which  is 
at  this  point  disclosed.  "If  ye  have  not  been 
faithful  in  the  unrighteous  Mammon,"  he  says, "  who 
will  commit  to  your  trust  the  true  riches  ?  "  So  far 
the  lesson  is  obvious.  If  one  has  been  unfaithful 
in  that  which  is  least,  he  cannot  expect  to  be 
trusted  with  that  which  is  much.  The  riches  of  the 
Kingdom  are  to  be  reserved  for  those  who  have  done 
their  duty  "in  this  present  world."  There  follows, 
however,   a  more   subtle   teaching.     "If,"   Jesus 


CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  MAKING  OF  MONEY      1 23 

goes  on  to  say,  "ye  have  not  been  faithful  in  that 
which  is  another  man's,  who  shall  give  you  that 
which  is  your  own?"  How  can  that  be  given  to 
me  which  is  already  my  own  ?  Is  it  not  my  own  to 
give  rather  than  to  receive  ?  May  one's  own  pos- 
sessions be  given  to  him  as  a  reward?  Must  he 
be  faithful  to  that  which  is  another's  before  he 
can  be  said  to  own  what  is  his  own?  Precisely 
this  is  the  searching  doctrine  of  Christian  ownership. 
To  set  apart  what  is  one's  own  from  that  which  is 
another  man's,  to  fancy  the  two  interests  essen- 
tially hostile  and  the  gain  of  the  one  to  be  in  the 
same  degree  the  loss  of  the  other,  is  not  only  to  live 
in  a  world  of  robbers  and  wolves  instead  of  a  world 
of  brotherhood  and  love,  but  it  is,  still  further,  to 
fail  of  real  possession,  even  of  the  spoils  which  one 
may  secure.  What  one  securely  owns  is  not  that 
which  is  appropriated  by  him  from  the  common  life, 
but  that  which  is  utilized  by  him  for  the  common  life. 
His  serviceableness  is  the  proof  of  his  ownership. 
He  has  been  faithful  to  that  which  is  another's,  and 
so  there  is  given  to  him  that  which  is  his  own.  He 
has  verified  the  truth  of  Dante's  teaching  con- 
cerning "  the  higher  sphere  " :  — 

"For  there,  by  how  much  more  they  call  it  ours. 
So  much  propriety  of  each  in  good 
Increases  more." 

Seneca,  in  a  striking  "Dialogue,"  defends  the 
possession  of  wealth  in  terms  which  are  as  Christian 
as  they  are  Stoic.     "The  philosopher,"  he  says  to 


124     THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

Gallio,  "will  have  abundant  wealth,  but  wealth 
acquired  without  injustice  to  any,  and  without 
sordid  traffic ;  the  outflow  of  which  is  as  honorable 
as  the  income.  .  .  .  He  will  even  have  that  of 
which  he  may  boast,  if  throwing  open  his  house  and 
admitting  people  to  his  property,  he  can  say,  'Let 
every  man  take  whatever  he  recognizes  as  his.' 
O,  great  man,  most  honorably  rich,  if,  after  these 
words,  he  shall  have  as  much  as  before  !"  ^ 

The  case  of  the  irresponsible  rich  illustrates  in  an 
extreme  form  the  operation  of  the  principle  of 
Utilization,  but  the  same  principle,  though  less 
conspicuous  in  its  action,  governs  those  more 
fortimate  lives  whose  possessions  are  moderate  and 
shifting.  Here  also  ownership,  to  be  secure,  in- 
volves utilization.  The  investor,  the  employer, 
the  man  of  business,  is  either  a  conscious  participant 
and  willing  partner  in  the  world's  work,  or  in  de- 
taching himself  from  the  common  good  he  is  in 
grave  peril  of  becoming  ensnared  by  the  "deceitful- 
ness  of  riches"  and,  in  the  end,  being  owned  by  that 
of  which  he  thinks  himself  the  owner.  There  is  no 
moral  neutrality  in  the  making  of  money.  There 
are,  as  has  been  finely  said,  only  two  social  classes, 
benefactors  and  malefactors.^  The  man  that  is 
not  doing  good  is  doing  harm ;  and  the  harm  he 
may  do  to  others  is  not  more  permanent  and  dis- 
astrous than  the  trick  he  has  played  on  himself. 

1  "De  Vita  Beata,"  Ch.  XXIII. 

*  M.  Stryker,  "Addresses,"  1896,  p.  96. 


CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  MAKING  OF  MONEY      1 25 

These  considerations  may  guide  one  to  some  ex- 
tent in  many  difficult  decisions  of  business  life.    What    ,. 
is  my  money  doing,  and  what  am  I  doing  with  it,    ) 
in  the  daily  conduct  of  my  affairs,  to  satisfy  the     \ 
test  of  stewardship?    Am  I  concerned  with  any     \ 
creative  enterprise,  either  of  hand  or  of  mind  ?    Is     | 
there  any  gain  in  methods  of  trade,  in  standard  of     | 
profession,  in  efficiency  of  teaching,  in  legal  pro-     \ 
cedure,  in  domestic  happiness,  in  neighborly  service,      \ 
in  civic  security,  in  religious  fellowship,  through  the       ' 
uses  to  which  I  put  the  money  which  I  make? 
Then  I  have  at  least  escaped  from  the  great  illusion 
of  the  modem  world,   the  "trickery  of  riches." 
The  utilization  of  my  money  becomes  its  justifica- 
tion.   The  most  searching  test  of  the  Christian  life 
is  met  as  I  thus  consider,  not  the  uses  of  my  money 
after  it  is  made,  but  the  uses  which  it  serves  while 
it  is  making.    However  slight  may  be  my  part  in     ' 
the  stewardship  of  the  purposes  of  God,  I  may  at 
least  so  conduct  my  affairs  that  it  shall  not  be  on 
me  that  the  Teacher's  eye  will  fall  as  he  says : 
"If  ye  have  not  been  faithful  in  that  which  is  an- 
other man's,  who  shall  give  you  that  which  is  your 
own?" 

The  second  test  which  may  be  applied  to  the 
principle  of  stewardship  is  that  of  humanization. 
Economists  have,  as  a  rule,  studied  the  processes  of 
industry  as  problems  in  mechanics.  They  describe 
the  balance  of  trade,  the  flow  of  gold,  the  rise  and 
fall  of  values,  the  free  competition  of  equal  indus- 


126     THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE   IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

trial  units,  and  one  might  easily  infer  that  economic 
science  was  a  form  of  physical  science,  dealing  with 
tides,  or  streams,  or  the  balanced  equilibrium  of 
weights  and  forces.  Such,  in  fact,  was  the  con- 
clusion of  the  earlier  English  economists.  The 
laws  of  social  action  appeared  to  them  like  the  laws 
of  nature,  and  the  less  obstructed  these  laws  were 
by  human  intervention  or  modification,  the  more 
stable  and  productive  industry  would  be.  De 
Quincey  said  that  Ricardo  "had  deduced  a  priori 
from  the  understanding  itself  laws  which  first  shot 
arrowy  light  into  the  dark  chaos  of  materials."^ 
The  circumstances  of  the  modem  world  have,  how- 
ever, undermined  this  system  of  industrial  physics. 
Instead  of  free  and  equal  units  jostling  each  other 
like  atoms  in  the  physical  world,  we  have  vast 
aggregations  both  of  capital  and  labor,  in  which 
these  atoms  are  merged  as  in  a  planetary  system ; 
and  instead  of  free  competition  we  have  the  enor- 
mous development  of  combination,  restricting  com- 
petition or  excluding  it  altogether.  Yet  the  effect 
of  the  earlier  economic  science  still  survives  in  a 
habit  of  mind  which  controls  many  business  men. 
They  fancy  that  industry  has  been  proved  to  be 
automatic  in  its  action,  that  it  is  completely  inter- 
preted by  the  laws  of  supply  and  demand,  and  the 
fact  that  these  laws  of  economic  life  usually  work  to 
the  advantage  of  the  capitalist  does  not  diminish 

^  "Confessions  of  an  English  Opium-eater,"  Works,  4th  ed. 
1878, 1,  p.  255. 


CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  MAKING  OP  MONEY      1 27 

his  faith  in  them.  "Laissez  faire,"  "Mind  your 
own  business,"  "Accept  the  current  standards  of 
trade,"  —  these  familiar  maxims  have  been  not 
only  easy  to  obey,  but  have  seemed  to  possess  the 
further  merit  of  conforming  to  natural  law  and  of 
illustrating  the  mechanism  of  industry. 

Nothing,  however,  is  more  obvious  in  the 
practical  conduct  of  modem  business  than  its  trans- 
formation from  a  mechanical  to  a  human  science. 
The  wage-earner  who  was  once  treated  as  a  part 
of  a  machine  has  emerged  into  self-consciousness 
and  demands  consideration  as  a  human  being. 
Education  has  made  him  observant ;  organization 
has  made  him  formidable;  and  legislation  has 
apphed  itself  to  his  protection  and  welfare.  Fifty 
years  ago  Ruskin  said  that  economic  science  in  its 
study  of  the  engine  of  industry  had  neglected  the 
study  of  the  steam  which  propelled  that  engine. 
"The  largest  quantity  of  work  will  not  be  done  by 
this  curious  engine  for  pay;  ...  it  will  be  done 
only  when  the  motive-force,  that  is  to  say  the  will 
or  spirit  of  the  creature,  is  brought  to  its  greatest 
strength  by  its  own  proper  fuel."  ^  That  is  pre- 
cisely what  all  intelligent  employers  have  come, 
however  hesitatingly  or  reluctantly,  to  recognize. 
The  secret  of  business  stability,  they  have  dis- 
covered, is  not  so  much  mechanical  as  ethical. 
Economic  laws  have  their  fundamental  importance, 
as  laws  of  heat  and  motion  control  the  construction 

1  "Unto  this  Last,"  1862,  p.  23. 


128     THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

and  management  of  an  engine;  but  through  the 
mechanism,  shattering  it  if  not  utilized  by  it,  works 
the  steam  of  human  passions,  desires,  and  needs. 
To  ignore  that  human  factor  is  to  court  disaster,  to 
direct  its  expansion  and  its  propelling  energy  is  the 
chief  task  of  the  man  of  business  to-day.  In  New 
England  at  least  it  will  not  soon  be  forgotten  that 
the  most  disastrous  strike  of  this  generation  oc- 
curred, not  because  a  new  law  compelled  a  reduc- 
tion in  hours,  or  even  because  reduced  pay  followed 
from  this  reduction,  but  because  it  had  not  occurred 
to  the  employing  corporations  to  humanize  their 
business,  and  to  give  due  notice  and  explanation  to 
their  employed.  The  shock  of  surprise  with  which 
the  pay-envelopes  were  received  ran  through  the 
inflammable  mass  of  operatives  like  an  electric 
spark  and  set  the  town  on  fire. 

At  precisely  this  point,  where  expediency  and 
justice  unite  in  advising  the  humanization  of  indus- 
try, we  are  met  once  more  by  the  teaching  of 
Jesus  Christ.  His  entire  view  of  conduct  was 
based  on  the  conception  of  a  fraternal  world.  The 
brotherhood  of  man  was  his  corollary  from  the 
Fatherhood  of  God.  If  the  order  of  the  world  is 
that  of  a  Father's  love,  then  the  order  of  society 
must  be  that  of  a  human  family.  "One  is  your 
Master,  even  Christ,  and  all  ye  are  brethren." 
"Whosoever  shall  do  the  will  of  God,  the  same  is 
my  brother."  "My  brethren  are  these  which  hear 
the  word  of  God  and  do  it."    "Inasmuch  as  ye 


CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  MAKING  OF  MONEY      1 29 

have  done  it  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these  my 
brethren,  ye  have  done  it  unto  me."  It  is  the 
same  teaching  which  is  summarized  in  the  glowing 
and  reiterated  maxims  of  the  Epistle  of  John: 
"He  that  loveth  his  brother  abideth  in  the  light." 
"He  that  hateth  his  brother  is  in  darkness." 
"If  a  man  say,  I  love  God,  and  hateth  his  brother, 
he  is  a  Uar."  "This  commandment  have  we  from 
Him,  that  he  who  loveth  God  love  his  brother  also." 
Industrialism,  then,  if  it  is  to  conform  to  the  teach- 
ing of  Jesus,  must  become  fratemaHsm.  The  busi- 
ness world,  as  the  apostle  Paul  said  of  the  Christian 
Church,  is  a  body  with  many  members,  and  "all 
the  members  of  one  body  being  many  are  one  body." 
"The  eye  cannot  say  unto  the  hand,  nor  again  the 
head  to  the  feet,"  nor  still  again  he  who  calls  himself 
the  head  of  an  industry  to  those  whom  he  caUs  his 
hands,  "I  have  no  need  of  you."  "And  whether 
one  member  suflfer,  all  the  members  suffer  with  it, 
or  one  member  be  honored  all  the  members  rejoice 
with  it,  that  there  shall  be  no  schism  in  the  body, 
but  that  the  members  should  have  the  same  care 
one  for  another."  Here  is  a  conception  of  business 
as  an  organism  of  mutually  dependent  parts, 
which,  it  must  be  admitted,  the  modem  world  is 
but  slowly  approaching.  Yet  no  one  can  observe 
the  signs  of  the  present  time  without  recognizing 
that  this  conception  of  a  humanized  and  frater- 
nalized  industrialism  is  now  distinctly  within  the 
horizon  of  practical  experiment.     This  is  the  ideal 


130     THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN   THE  MODERN  WORLD 

which,  however  dimly  perceived  or  crudely  de- 
scribed, gives  momentum  and  vitality  to  many  a 
scheme  of  industrial  revolution  whose  economic 
programme  may  be  proved  impracticable,  but 
whose  human  appeal  remains  unanswerable.  The 
humanization  of  industry  is  the  only  alternative  to 
industrial  war. 

A  way  thus  opens,  not  indeed  unobstructed,  yet 
not  impassable,  for  a  Christian  man  in  the  modem 
business  world.  Let  him  humanize  his  business. 
Let  him  dismiss  from  his  mind  the  complacency  of 
possession  which  a  large  proportion  of  business  men 
still  cherish,  and  face  the  obvious  fact  that  the 
industrial  world  is  in  process  of  transformation. 
What  was  once  a  mechanical  process,  where  not 
only  looms  and  furnaces  but  working-men  and  work- 
ing-women were  parts  of  a  great  machine,  has 
become  an  association  of  human  beings,  with  con- 
flicting desires,  with  irrepressible  passions,  with 
unrealized  hopes.  Such  a  transformation  neces- 
sarily involves  maladjustment  and  disorder,  and  may 
easily  be  utilized  to  promote  a  programme  of  class- 
conscious  hate  and  internecine  war.  The  Chris- 
tian idealist,  however,  cannot  regard  this  insurgence 
of  humanity  as  intrinsically  destructive  or  even 
perilous.  The  humanization  of  business  must, 
on  the  contrary,  in  its  final  result  be  a  happy 
redemption  from  the  domination  of  the  machine. 
Business  not  less  than  character  must  finally  pros- 
per in  a  world  whose  motive-power  is  not  steam, 


CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  MAKING  OF  MONEY      I31 

but  life.  The  first  onrush  of  the  new  consciousness 
may  be  fitful  and  passionate,  like  the  first  angry 
gusts  which  precede  a  cleansing  breeze.  The  new 
force  is  full  of  possibilities  of  disaster,  as  the  force 
of  electricity  may  be  a  weapon  of  flame  against 
which  an  earlier  generation  built  its  lightning  rods 
of  defence.  The  far-sighted  and  right-minded 
employer,  however,  applies  himself  to  the  inevitable 
and  the  intensely  interesting  problem  of  convert- 
ing a  threatening  gale  into  a  propelling  power,  and 
of  transforming  a  dangerous  force  into  an  agent 
of  service.  Formulas  of  ownership  which  were 
appropriate  to  a  feudal  age  of  industry  are  recog- 
nized by  him  as  like  the  machinery  of  the  last 
century,  to  be  scrap-heaped  as  antiquated  and 
improfitable.  By  ingenious  application  of  human- 
ization  to  his  special  industry  he  selects  that  type 
of  cooperation  which  is  congenial  and  appropriate. 
Without  qualification  or  reluctance  he  welcomes  the 
principle  of  partnership  in  production,  which  assures 
to  the  wage-earners  the  right  to  a  share  of  profits, 
the  information  which  a  stockholder  may  demand, 
and  the  conditions  of  industry  which  are  fit  for 
human  Hves.  He  believes  in  the  capacity  of  wage- 
earners  to  understand  the  nature  and  limits  of  his 
business  when  candidly  explained,  and  to  contribute 
to  it  loyalty  instead  of  capital.  By  every  available 
method  he  promotes  continuity  of  service  and 
diminishes  the  grave  evil  of  intermittency.  He 
describes  the  business,  not  as  his,  but  as  "ours." 


132     THE   CHRISTIAN   LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

Among  its  assets  are  to  be  reckoned  sanitation, 
health,  education,  and  self-respect.  In  the  present, 
and  not  wholly  unjustified,  temper  of  the  wage- 
earners  this  humanization  of  business  must  expect 
to  be  met  by  much  hostility,  suspicion,  and  even 
bitter  attack ;  but  it  has  the  positive  and  inalien- 
able satisfaction  of  being  a  direct  application  of  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  Christ  to  the  modem  world.  Its 
failures  are,  for  the  most  part,  not  because  it  is  an 
impracticable  or  imtimely  venture,  but  because  it 
is  undertaken  without  sufficient  knowledge,  study, 
or  patience.  It  is  not  enough  for  the  sense  of 
humanization  to-day  to  be  generous,  self-sacrificing, 
or  even  prodigal;  it  must  be  what  the  apostle 
Paul  described  as  a  "reasonable  service." 

These  indications  of  the  tendencies  and  opportu- 
nities of  modem  business  make  it  not  impossible  to 
regard  the  world  of  money-making,  even  as  it  now 
is,  with  a  restrained  and  rational  hope.  It  is  a 
troubled  scene  of  mingled  motives,  where  great 
numbers  of  men  are  what  Hobbes  called  wolves  to 
their  neighbors;  where  the  greed  of  gain  makes 
treachery  a  permissible  custom  and  duplicity  a 
studied  science ;  where  the  ignorant  and  defenceless 
often  find  themselves  wrestling  against  the  rulers 
of  the  darkness  of  this  world  in  high  places.  The 
very  audacity  and  arrogance  of  this  financial  piracy 
has,  however,  brought  about  a  dramatic  and  un- 
precedented reaction.  When  a  community  has 
once  discovered  that  Directors  are   misdirecting, 


CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  MAKING  OF  MONEY       I33 

that  Trustees  are  untrustworthy,  and  that  the 
very  name  of  Trust  is  applied  to  an  illegal  combina- 
tion, it  is  likely  to  be  not  only  morally  shocked,  but 
stirred  to  a  new  demand  for  reform.  Outraged 
sentiment  in  the  United  States  has,  therefore,  not 
only  uttered  itself  in  stringent  legislation,  but  has 
led  to  indictments,  confessions,  judicial  sentences, 
and  even  suicides,  which  mark  the  stormy  begin- 
nings of  a  new  age.  Never  before  in  financial  history 
was  there  such  a  searching  of  hearts  and  scrutiny  of 
methods  as  have  been  of  late  going  on  in  the  busi- 
ness world.  Habits  of  trade  which  a  generation 
ago  were  not  only  entrenched  as  customs,  but 
defended  as  creditable,  have  become  either  frankly 
discarded  or  guiltily  concealed.  Not  great  cor- 
porations alone,  but  men  of  every  degree  who  are 
concerned  with  the  making  of  money,  are  consulting 
their  consciences  as  much  as  their  ledgers,  and  ad- 
justing their  affairs  to  meet  the  new  tests  of  public 
opinion  and  the  new  interpretation  of  law. 

At  such  a  time  one  quality  in  human  life  attains 
new  impor  tance  and  gives  to  its  possessors  distinction 
and  leadership.  It  is  what  a  journal  Uttle  given  to 
sentiment,  the  New  York  Nation,  has  lately  de- 
scribed as  the  "antique  virtue  of  simple  honesty."^ 
The  age  of  Napoleons  of  finance,  of  wreckers  of 
corporations,  of  dummy  directors  and  reckless 
plunderers,  is  closing  as  the  prison  doors  have  closed 
on  some  illustrious  representatives  of  that  era; 
^  The  Nation,  Jan.  i,  1914. 


134     THE  CHRISTIAN   LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

and  the  best  foundations  of  business  success  in  the 
new  time  are  integrity,  incorruptibility,  the  spirit 
of  stewardship,  and  the  humanization  of  industry. 
Dilficult,  then,  as  it  still  must  be  to  keep  business 
clean,  hard  as  it  still  is  for  a  rich  man  to  enter 
the  Kingdom  of  God,  it  is  evident  that  the  modem 
world  has  discovered,  through  many  severe  and 
even  tragic  experiences,  the  practicability  —  not 
to  say  the  desirability  —  of  the  Christianization 
of  business.  Honesty  has  become  not  only  the 
best  policy,  but  the  surest  foimdation  of  a  stable 
competency.  The  best  advice  which  can  now  be 
'  ofiFered  to  a  young  man  who  wants  a  good  income  is 
to  get  and  keep  a  good  name.  Even  though  the 
business  world  is  far  from  Christianized,  it  at  least 
faces  toward  the  light.  It  is  a  period,  not  of  fulfil- 
ment, but  of  anticipation ;  a  prophetic  rather  than 
a  Messianic  era.  A  man  of  the  modem  business 
world  may  not  be  ready  to  repeat  the  great  words  of 
perfect  consecration,  "My  meat  is  to  do  the 
will  of  Him  that  sent  me  and  to  finish  his  work" ; 
but  he  may  be  ready  to  obey  the  call  of  the  prophet : 
"Prepare  the  way  !  Take  up  the  stumbling  block 
out  of  the  way  of  my  people !  Cast  up  the  high- 
way !    Gather  out  the  stones  !" 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  USES  OF  MONEY 

The  considerations  which  have  thus  far  been  sug- 
gested for  the  direction  or  control  of  money-making, 
however  important  they  may  be  for  men  involved  in 
business  affairs,  may  well  seem  to  others  of  little 
personal  concern.  Great  numbers  of  persons, 
though  necessarily  using  money,  are  not  primarily 
devoted  to  making  it,  and  the  call  to  utilize  it 
or  humanize  it  may  make  but  slight  appeal  to 
their  own  lives.  There  are,  however,  two  uses  of 
money  which  are  not  reserved  for  financiers  or 
capitalists,  but  are  available  for  all  except  those 
who  have  no  money  to  use,  and  which  are  quite  as 
perplexing  in  the  problems  and  demands  they  in- 
volve as  is  the  conduct  of  business  itself.  The  first 
of  these  uses  is  in  the  spending  of  money,  and 
the  second  is  in  the  giving  it  away.  Not  the 
rich  only,  but  the  far  more  numerous  and  far 
more  important  body  of  less  conspicuous  people 
who  are  neither  rich  nor  poor,  feels  itself  con- 
fronted by  questions  of  expenditure  and  of  benev- 
olence, of  thrift  and  charity,  of  extravagance  and 
generosity.  How  to  spend  without  waste,  and 
how  to  give  without  harm,  are  matters  of  daily 

Z35 


136     THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

self-inquiry  and  hesitancy  for  great  numbers  of 
conscientious  lives.  What  indication,  then,  of 
guidance  among  such  problems  may  be  derived 
from  the  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ?  What  are 
the  rules  of  spending  and  the  principles  of  giving 
which  the  Christian  Hfe  may  apply,  under  the 
circumstances  of  the  modem  world? 

The  first  of  these  questions  is  of  special  concern  in 
the  United  States  because  its  people,  whether  pros- 
perous or  poor,  are  the  most  thriftless  and  extrava- 
gant in  the  world.  The  extraordinary  bounty  of 
nature,  the  discovery  of  new  resources,  the  migra- 
tory habit  of  life,  and  the  universality  of  popular 
education  have  combined  to  make  desires  outrun 
possessions  and  luck  more  tempting  than  thrift. 
The  typical  American  is  expectant,  sanguine,  and 
venturesome.  Though  he  may  fail  at  one  point,  he 
anticipates  success  at  another.  As  one  need  is 
satisfied  it  creates  more.  The  romantic  story  of 
great  fortunes  attained  from  small  beginnings 
excites  the  imaginations  of  plain  people  as  Cooper's 
Indians  used  to  excite  American  boys  to  take  the 
warpath ;  and  the  magic  of  speculation  seems  more 
likely  than  the  slow  processes  of  saving  to  convert 
earnings  into  gold. 

The  national  extravagance  induced  by  this 
habit  of  mind  is  most  conspicuous  among  the 
foolish  rich,  whose  ostentatious  prodigality  makes 
welcome  material  for  the  daily  press  and  incites 
the  less   fortunate   either  to  vulgar  imitation  or 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  USES  OF  MONEY      137 

to  bitter  protest.  Hardly  less  misdirected  and 
wasteful,  however,  though  less  conspicuous,  is  the 
extravagance  of  wage-earners  and  their  families. 
Ill-chosen  and  expensive  food,  hand-to-mouth 
buying,  migratory  living,  the  passion  for  finery, 
and  the  still  more  imperative  craving  for  alcoholic 
drink,  not  only  dissipate  earnings,  but  reduce  the 
capacity  to  earn.  "Give  me  the  luxuries  of  life," 
a  distinguished  American  once  playfully  said,  "and 
I  can  dispense  with  the  necessities."  This  is  pre- 
cisely the  principle  which  prevails  in  many  an 
humble  home.  Imitation  of  the  more  fortunate, 
the  contagion  of  fashion,  and  ignorance  of  the  first 
principles  of  sanitation  and  nutrition  increase  the 
budget  of  superfluities  and  rob  both  bodies  and 
minds  of  necessities,  until  the  will  to  save  and  the 
abihty  to  save  perish  together.  The  situation  is 
aggravated  by  the  counsel  of  many  revolutionists 
who  systematically  condenm  the  habit  of  thrift. 
He  who  saves,  they  argue,  is  Ukely  to  be  on  the 
side  of  the  present  industrial  order.  His  balance 
in  the  savings-bank  commits  him  to  capitalism. 
To  spend  all  one  gets  and  to  demand  more  is,  it  is 
often  taught,  the  first  duty  of  a  consistent  revolu- 
tionist. "We  teach  our  people,"  an  English  labor 
leader  once  said,  "that  thrift  is  no  virtue." 

In  this  condition  of  national  improvidence  two 
general  truths  become  of  preliminary  importance. 
In  the  first  place  it  should  be  remembered  that  thrift 
is  not  only  an  economic  advantage,  but  a  way  of 


138     THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

moral  education.  The  saving  of  money  is,  in  most 
instances,  to  be  encouraged,  not  merely  for  the  mak- 
ing of  money,  but  quite  as  much  for  the  making  of 
character.  Prosperous  children  not  less  than  poor 
children  may  be  taught,  through  the  practice  of 
thrift,  not  only  frugality  and  prudence,  but  self- 
restraint,  foresight,  and  consideration  for  others. 
The  reckless  spender  loses  not  only  money,  but  self- 
control.  However  threatening  to  economic  welfare 
the  prevalence  of  thriftlessness  may  be,  the  risk  to 
self-mastery  and  efl&ciency,  which  inevitably  ac- 
companies thriftlessness,  is  still  more  disastrous  to 
national  morality.  The  spendthrift  tendencies 
of  the  poor  may  be  in  some  degree  defended  as 
signs  of  aspiration  and  hope ;  but  the  irresponsible 
ostentation  of  the  rich  is  an  unmistakable  sign  of 
decadence.  The  one  may  meet  a  civilization  on  its 
way  up ;  the  other  attacks  it  on  its  way  down. 

The  second  principle  which  should  be  remem- 
bered at  this  point  is  what  the  economists  call  the 
fallacy  of  extravagance.  It  is  sometimes  argued 
that  the  spending  on  superfluities  promotes  labor 
and  trade.  A  sumptuous  ball,  for  example,  in- 
volves and  remunerates  many  kinds  of  labor.  The 
cost  of  champagne  supports  the  grower  in  France 
and  the  distributor  in  America;  the  prodigal  dis- 
play of  flowers  maintains  florists  and  decorators. 
What  seems  a  waste  is  thus,  it  is  urged,  a  blessing. 
The  spendthrift  is  a  disguised  philanthropist. 
The  argument,  however,  as  has  been  often  pointed 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LITE  AND  THE  USES  OF  MONEY       I39 

out,  is  fallacious.  It  assumes  that  the  money 
thus  spent  would  otherwise  remain  idle  and  unpro- 
ductive, while,  in  fact,  money,  even  though  left  by  a 
depositor  in  a  bank,  is  set  by  the  bank  in  circulation 
and  applied  to  the  making  of  more  money.  The 
depositor  may  be  idle,  but  the  money  is  at  work. 
Investment  uses  money  as  definitely  as  does  spend- 
ing. The  only  economic  alternatives  possible, 
unless  money  be  kept  in  a  miser's  stocking,  are 
those  of  a  profitable  and  an  unprofitable  expendi- 
ture. "It  is,"  as  Mr.  Mill  said,  "a  truism,  though 
a  paradox,  that  a  person  does  good  to  laborers,  not 
by  what  he  consumes  on  himself,  but  by  what  he 
does  not  consume."  ^  Thus  it  is  the  direction  in 
which  labor  is  to  be  employed  which  is  the  only 
practical  issue  involved.  What  makes  expenditure 
on  champagne  less  well  directed  than  investment  in 
houses  or  railroads  is  not  that  labor  is  not  in  both 
cases  promoted,  but  that  the  labor  in  the  one  case 
creates  a  perishable  product  and  in  the  other  case 
reproduces  further  labor.  The  champagne  is 
drunk  and  the  bottles  are  thrown  away ;  while  the 
houses  are  occupied  and  the  railroads  continue  to 
employ  labor  and  to  promote  convenience  and 
trade.  In  the  one  case  value  ceases ;  in  the  other 
case  it  is  perpetuated  or  increased.  The  eco- 
nomic fallacy  of  extravagance  consists  in  direct- 
ing expenditure  to  that  which  is  short-lived,  perish- 

1  "Principles  of  Political  Economy,"  1868, 1,  p.  120;  c£.  F.  W. 
Taussig,  "Principles  of  Economics,"  191 1,  II,  p.  192. 


I40     THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

ing,  and  pernicious,  instead  of  to  that  which  is 
reproductive,  permanent,  or  serviceable.  Waste- 
fuhiess,  ostentation,  and  self-indulgence  not  only 
diminish  economic  productiveness  in  the  spender, 
but  obstruct  the  flow  of  productive  labor  to  other 
lives. 

These  general  considerations  bring  one  to  the 
personal  problems  of  his  own  expenditure,  or  to 
what  an  American  economist  has  called  "the 
backward  art  of  spending  money."  ^  What  princi- 
ple may  direct  one  in  his  spending  ?  What  stand- 
ard of  living  is  justified  and  appropriate?  What 
are  the  limits  of  luxury  ?  Is  it  possible  to  adminis- 
ter expenditure  without  penuriousness  on  the  one 
hand  or  extravagance  on  the  other,  so  that  the 
Christian  Ufe  may  be  consistent  with  the  conditions 
of  the  modem  world?  The  answers  to  these 
questions  must,  of  course,  vary  in  many  details 
with  varying  circumstances  of  inheritance,  occupa- 
tion, or  place.  Fixed  regulations  cannot  be  appli- 
cable to  different  incomes  or  special  emergencies. 
The  Christian  Gospel  is  not  a  Talmudic  system  of 
minute  rules  concerning  each  detail  of  conduct,  but 
a  commimication  of  Power  and  Life,  with  the 
elasticity  and  variability  of  this  dynamic  and 
vital  operation.  And  yet  the  general  principle  of 
stewardship  which  governs  the  making  of  money 
may  direct  not  less  definitely  the  spending  of  it. 
K    what   one    owns  is   owed,  if  possessions  are 

^  W.  C.  Mitchell,  American  Economic  Review,  June,  1912. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  USES  OF  MONEY       141 

illusory  until  they  are  socially  serviceable,  if 
riches  have  in  them  the  quality  of  "  deceitfulness " 
against  which  one  must  be  on  his  guard,  then 
some  indication  is  given  to  any  thoughtful  mind 
concerning  the  backward  art  of  spending  money. 

In  the  first  place  the  principle  of  stewardship 
indicates  scrutiny.  Expenditure  must  be  intelli- 
gent and  rational  instead  of  thoughtless  and  stupid. 
"The  Lord  of  those  servants  cometh  and  maketh  a 
reckoning  with  them."  To  be  ready  for  that 
accounting,  to  accept  the  limitations  and  obliga- 
tions of  a  trustee,  to  fix  a  standard  of  living  which  is 
appropriate  and  legitimate  for  one  who  is  respon- 
sible to  Him  who  owns,  and  to  recognize  as 
fraudulent  either  the  practice  or  the  pretence  of 
prodigality,  —  that  is  the  beginning  of  Christian 
spending.  The  loose  expenditure  which  is  often 
fancied  to  be  a  sign  of  social  superiority  or  superb 
indifference  is,  in  fact,  not  only  a  form  of  vulgarity, 
but  a  form  of  self-deception.  It  hopes  to  buy 
recognition,  distinction,  or  gratitude;  but  it  be- 
comes, in  reahty,  notorious,  ridiculed,  or  plundered. 

Here  is  an  ethical  situation  which  is  often  quite 
overlooked.  Many  a  man  who  closely  scrutinizes 
his  money-making  feels  no  obligation  to  scrutinize 
his  spending.  May  I  not,  he  says,  do  as  I  will  with 
mine  own  ?  The  science  of  business  is  so  absorbing 
that  he  has  no  time  for  the  science  of  expenditure. 
Many  a  woman  has  no  idea  what,  or  on  what,  she 
spends,  and  swings  in  her  moods  from  extravagance 


142     THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

to  penuriousness,  injuring  other  lives,  first  by  her 
recklessness  and  then  by  her  injustice.  The 
scrutiny  of  spending  is  as  much  a  duty  of  women 
as  of  men,  of  employers  as  of  employees,  of  house- 
keepers as  of  house-servants,  of  the  prosperous  as 
of  the  poor.  "They  that  trust  in  their  wealth 
and  boast  themselves  in  the  multitude  of  their 
riches,"  says  the  Psalmist,  "none  of  them  can  by 
any  means  redeem  his  brother  nor  give  to  God  a 
ransom  for  him."  Ostentatious  and  reckless  spend- 
ing, that  is  to  say,  is  not  only  culpable  in  itself,  but 
may  even  leave  one  incapable  of  helping  others. 
One  cannot  redeem  his  brother  by  purchase,  or 
buy  a  ransom  for  him.  The  only  way  to  redeem 
another  Hfe  is  through  one's  own  hfe.  The  Son  of 
Man  came  to  give  his  life  a  ransom  for  many. 

To  the  obligation  of  scrutiny  is,  however,  to  be 
immediately  added  what  may  be  called  the  privilege 
of  detachment.  The  scrutiny  of  spending,  though 
a  duty  to  be  intelligently  performed,  is  a  subordi- 
nate duty.  If  it  become  primary  and  engrossing,  it 
grows  anxious  and  penurious.  The  Christian  life 
is  faithful  in  that  which  is  least,  not  because  the 
least  is  much,  but  because  the  least  may,  if  over- 
looked, be  obstructive  of  that  which  is  much. 
It  makes  a  friend  of  Mammon,  not  because  Mam- 
mon offers  a  permanent  habitation,  but  because 
Mammon  may  obstruct  the  way  toward  "ever- 
lasting habitations."  In  short,  the  problem  of 
spending,  while  it  may  be  carelessly  ignored,  may 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  USES  OF  MONEY      1 43 

on  the  other  hand  be  taken  too  seriously.  The 
Christian  life  views  it  with  a  certain  detachment  of 
mind.  Precisely  as  the  economists,  in  dealing  with 
the  fallacy  of  extravagance,  advise  the  direction  of 
expenditure  to  permanent  rather  than  to  perish- 
able ends,  so  with  reiterated  emphasis  Jesus  calls 
his  disciples  to  give  their  loyalty,  not  to  that  which 
is  to  perish,  but  to  that  which  is  to  remain.  "  Seek 
first,"  he  says,  "the  Kingdom  of  God  and  His 
righteousness";  "Provide  for  yourselves  treasures 
that  fade  not" ;  "Where  your  treasure  is  there  will 
your  heart  be  also " ;  "Thou  fool  .  .  .  that  lay eth 
up  treasure  for  himself  and  is  not  rich  toward 
God." 

The  emancipation  of  the  will  from  slavery  to 
riches  and  its  dedication  to  treasures  which  money 
cannot  buy  is,  therefore,  the  first  condition  of  spir- 
itual security.  The  spirit  of  detachment  supple- 
ments the  scrutiny  of  spending.  It  is  important 
to  save,  but  there  are  other  things  which  are  more 
important.  The  real  wealth  is  that  which  fades 
not ;  the  real  poverty  is  that  which  is  not  rich  tow- 
ard God.  Expenditure,  therefore,  for  friendship, 
for  hospitality,  for  the  expression  of  beauty,  for 
the  dissemination  of  happiness,  for  the  utterance  of 
affection,  may  often  be  justified,  even  when  lav- 
ish or  imprudent  instead  of  cautious  and  cal- 
culating. "Piety,"  said  WilHam  Law  in  his 
"  Serious  Call,"  "  requires  to  renounce  no  way  of  life 
where  we  can  act  reasonably.    Whatever  you  can 


144     THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

do  or  enjoy  in  the  presence  of  God,  as  his  rational 
creature  ...  is  allowed  by  the  laws  of  piety."  * 

This  is  what  the  Apostle,  in  a  phrase  often  robbed 
of  its  force,  called  the  "Simplicity  that  is  toward 
Christ."  ^  Simplicity  is  not  meagreness  or  empti- 
ness, the  stripping  from  life  of  its  richness  and 
resources;  it  is,  as  the  Greek  signifies,  singleness, 
the  undeviating  direction  of  the  will  as  of  a  piece 
of  wood  which  is  straight-grained.  The  simple 
life  is  one  that  has  fixed  direction,  straightforward- 
ness, single-mindedness,  the  ability  to  keep  a 
straight  path  among  the  solicitations  either  of 
selfishness  or  of  success.  There  is  a  simplicity 
which  abandons  and  rejects ;  and  there  is  a  better 
simplicity  which  discriminates  and  selects;  and 
this  capacity  to  keep  the  narrow  path  which  divides 
niggardliness  from  extravagance  and  ostentation 
from  liberaUty,  is  one  evidence  of  the  simplicity 
that  is  toward  Christ. 

No  glimpse  of  the  heart  of  Jesus  is  more  illu- 
minating than  that  which  is  here  revealed.  The 
same  Teacher  who  so  repeatedly  condemns  fool- 
ish expenditure,  and  bids  his  disciples  provide 
for  themselves  treasures  that  fade  not,  does  not 
hesitate  to  commend  an  offering  which  symbol- 
izes single-minded  consecration.  A  woman  brings 
her  box  of  precious  ointment,  and  pours  it  out 
in  prodigal  expenditure;  and  the  disciples  "have 

^  "Serious  Call  to  a  Devout  and  Holy  Life,"  ed.  1821,  p.  108. 
*  2  Cor.  XI,  3.    "  Single-heartedness."    (Weymouth,  op.  cU.) 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  USES  OF  MONEY      145 

indignation,  sa5dng,  To  what  purpose  is  this  waste ; 
for  this  ointment  might  have  been  sold  for  much 
and  given  to  the  poor  ?  "  But  Jesus  welcomes  the 
spontaneous  spending,  the  symbolism  of  sacrifice, 
the  subordination  of  the  commercial  to  the  ideal, 
and  says,  in  words  which  indorse  many  an  extrava- 
gance of  love,  "Wheresoever  this  Gospel  shall  be 
preached  in  the  whole  world,  there  shall  also  this 
that  this  woman  hath  done  be  told  for  a  memorial 
of  her."  The  Christian  Hfe,  in  other  words,  though 
it  scrutinizes  its  spending,  is  not  ascetic,  but  appre- 
ciative. It  says,  indeed,  with  the  Prophet, 
"Wherefore  do  ye  spend  money  for  that  which 
is  not  bread?"  but  it  also  says  with  the  Apostle, 
"I  will  very  gladly  spend  and  be  spent  for  you." 
John  the  Baptist  came  neither  eating  nor  drinking, 
but  the  Son  of  Man  was  called  the  friend  of  wine- 
bibbers  and  publicans.  The  first  incident  reported 
in  the  Fourth  Gospel  of  the  public  life  of  Jesus  was 
at  a  wedding.  Jesus,  in  fact,  was  as  little  afraid 
of  luxury  as  he  was  ashamed  of  poverty.  He 
was  equally  at  home  among  the  prosperous  and  the 
poor.  His  teaching  was  not,  "Beware  of  capital," 
but,  "Beware  of  covetousness."  His  scrutiny  was 
not  of  money,  but  of  motives.  His  detachment 
from  money  was  not  from  the  institution  of  prop- 
erty, but  from  the  deceitfulness  of  riches. 

What,  then,  is  the  test  which  may  with  varying 
results  imder  varying  circumstances  be  applied 
to  the  personal  problem  of  expenditure  ?    It  is  the 


146     THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

test  of  service.  Am  I  spending  for  self-display,  for 
notoriety,  for  sensual  satisfaction,  ignorantly, 
stupidly,  with  varying  whims  of  extravagance  and 
niggardliness  alternating  like  fever  and  chills? 
Then,  even  while  I  ignore  the  social  obligations  of 
my  spending,  the  satisfactions  of  that  spending 
tend  to  shrink  into  discontent,  restlessness,  and 
burdensome  care;  and  even  as  I  say  to  myself, 
"  Soul,  thou  hast  much  goods  laid  up  for  many  years ; 
take  thine  ease,  eat,  drink  and  be  merry,"  I  hear  the 
stinging  satire  of  God,  "Thou  fool,  this  night  thy 
soul  shall  be  required  of  thee;  then  whose  shall 
those  things  be  which  thou  hast  provided  ?"  Or  am 
I,  on  the  other  hand,  accepting  the  pri\'ilege  of 
spending  as  I  do  the  other  endowments  of  my  life,  as 
talents  committed  to  my  care,  for  which  a  reckoning 
is  to  foUow,  so  that  money,  like  health,  like  learning, 
like  skill,  is  a  trust  rather  than  a  possession  ?  Then 
the  details  of  my  expenditure  fall  into  their  places 
with  the  duties  of  the  body  or  the  mind  or  the  hand. 
My  responsibiUty  is  proportionate  to  my  capacity. 
"Unto  whomsoever  much  is  given,  of  him  shall 
be  much  required,  and  to  whom  men  have  com- 
mitted much,  of  him  they  will  ask  the  more." 
Such  is  the  teaching  of  Jesus  for  those  to  whom 
much  has  been  committed,  whether  of  strength, 
or  learning,  or  money.  "The  hmit  of  luxury," 
Canon  Bamett  once  finely  said,  "is  the  limit  of 
sharing."  To  dispossess  one's  self  of  the  fallacy  of 
possession,  to  associate  one's  expenditure  of  money 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  USES  OF  MONEY      147 

with  the  general  problem  of  the  consecration  of 
life,  —  that  is  no  easy  task  among  the  multitudi- 
nous demands  of  ambition,  taste,  pride,  or  affec- 
tion; but  on  no  easier  terms  is  the  existing 
diversity  of  social  conditions,  or  even  the  institu- 
tion of  private  property  itself,  likely  to  endure.  If 
wealth  means  vulgar  ostentation  and  demoralizing 
expenditure,  if  luxury  is  license  and  money  a 
menace,  then  a  social  structure  which  has  become 
so  top-heavy  may  without  much  harm  to  the  future 
of  the  human  race  topple  into  ruins.  If,  on  the 
other  hand,  ownership  is  stewardship,  and  spending 
is  serving,  and  luxury  is  sharing,  then  social  revolu- 
tion may  be  supplanted  by  the  evolution  of  a  stable 
society.  Either  self-justification  through  service, 
or  defeat  and  surrender,  are  the  alternatives 
offered  to  the  spenders  of  money.  The  Christian 
life,  in  a  word,  holds  in  its  hands  the  destinies  of 
the  economic  world. 

When  one  turns  from  these  problems  of  expendi- 
ture to  the  second  use  of  money,  through  personal 
benevolence  or  through  organizations  for  social 
service,  he  is  met  by  difficulties  which  are  familiar 
to  great  numbers  of  thoughtful  lives.  What  are 
the  laws  and  Umits  of  judicious  charity?  What 
proportion  of  one's  earnings  or  savings  should  be 
distributed  to  those  who  earn  little  and  save  noth- 
ing ?  How  may  one  be  sure  that  in  trying  to  do 
good  he  is  not  doing  harm  ?  If  he  subsidize,  will  he 
not  pauperize?    Is  not  "the  one  big  duty,"  as  an 


148     THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

American  economist  has  afl&rmed,  to  mind  one's 
own  business  and  take  care  of  one's  self  ?  In  the 
"  Dialogue"  of  Seneca,  already  cited,  the  Stoic 
philosopher  anticipates  in  a  most  surprising  degree 
the  modem  attitude  of  caution  in  approaching  the 
duty  of  charity.  "If  any  one  thinks  that  giving," 
he  says,  "is  an  easy  matter,  he  is  mistaken.  It 
presents  the  greatest  difficulty,  provided  one  gives 
deliberately  and  does  not  scatter  casually  and  on 
impulse.  .  .  .  He  will  have  an  easy  purse  but  not 
one  with  holes ;  one  from  which  much  may  go  out, 
but  nothing  fall  out.  ...  To  some  I  will  not 
give,  although  they  lack,  for  even  if  I  were  to  give 
they  would  stiU  lack.  ...  I  cannot  be  careless  in 
this  matter.  Never  do  I  keep  my  accounts  more 
carefully  than  when  I  give."  What  light  may  be 
thrown  by  the  teaching  of  Jesus  on  this  duty  of 
intelligent  and  discriminating  benevolence?  If 
some  guidance  has  been  found  among  the  problems 
of  making  money  and  spending  it,  can  it  also  be 
trusted  to  direct  one  among  the  not  less  difl&cult 
problems  of  giving  money  away? 

The  answer  to  these  questions  may  be  ap- 
proached by  recalling  one  characteristic  of  the  Gos- 
pels which  is  often  overlooked.  Jesus  accepts  in 
his  teaching,  it  is  true,  the  noble  tradition  of  his 
nation  that  charity  is  the  logical  sequence  of  reli- 
gion. "I  was  a  father  to  the  poor,"  said  Job  in  his 
parable.  "He  hath  given  to  the  poor,"  says  the 
Psalmist.    "He  that  giveth  unto  the  poor  shall  not 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  USES  OF  MONEY      I49 

lack,"  says  the  Book  of  Proverbs.  In  the  same 
spirit  of  merciful  responsibility  the  Gospels  teach : 
"Distribute  to  the  poor;  Sell  that  ye  have  and 
give  to  the  poor";  and  Paul  writes  to  Timothy, 
"Be  ready  to  distribute."  It  soon  appears,  how- 
ever, that  the  teaching  of  Jesus  modifies  profoundly 
this  tradition  of  benevolence.  Almsgiving,  though 
it  be  an  essential  part  of  the  Christian  life,  is  to  him 
not  its  complete,  or  even  its  highest,  expression. 
On  the  contrary,  it  is  an  undertaking  beset  by 
many  risks  and  easily  blighted  by  ostentation, 
self-interest,  and  hypocrisy.  The  new  Teacher  is, 
therefore,  more  concerned  with  the  mistakes  of 
charity  than  with  its  merits.  "Take  heed,"  he 
says,  "that  ye  do  not  your  alms  before  men." 
"When  thou  doest  thine  alms,  let  not  thy  left  hand 
know  what  thy  right  hand  doeth."  "Many  that 
were  rich  cast  in  much,  and  there  came  a  certain 
widow  and  she  threw  in  two  mites,  which  make  a 
farthing.  And  he  called  imto  him  his  disciples  and 
saith  unto  them ;  Verily,  I  say  unto  you  that  this 
poor  widow  has  cast  more  in  than  all  they  which 
have  cast  into  the  treasury."  Self-display  and 
self-satisfaction  rob  giving  of  its  worth ;  self-eflFace- 
ment  and  sacrifice  are  the  marks  of  Christian 
charity.  "He  that  giveth,"  writes  Paul  to  the  same 
effect,  "let  him  do  it  with  simplicity;"  "Not 
grudgingly  or  of  necessity :  for  God  loveth  a  cheer- 
ful giver." 
This  attitude  of  caution  and  reserve  is  in  curious 


150     THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

contrast  with  the  prevailing  practice  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church.  Ahnsgiving  in  the  name  of  Christ 
has  been  not  only  vast  in  its  dimensions,  but,  as  a 
rule,  indiscriminate  in  its  methods.  The  command, 
"Give  to  him  that  asketh  thee,"  has  often  seemed 
to  justify  recklessness  in  the  giver  and  mendicancy 
in  the  receiver.  Many  a  man  who  is  hard  in  business 
but  soft  in  sentiment  has  defended  his  double  stand- 
ard of  ethics  by  citing  the  Apostolic  precept: 
"Charity  shall  cover  the  multitude  of  sins."  The 
relief  of  the  poor  has  even  been  commended,  not 
so  much  for  its  effect  on  the  receiver's  welfare  as 
for  its  effect  on  the  giver's  peace  of  mind.  "I  give 
alms,"  said  Sir  Thomas  Browne,  "not  to  satisfy  the 
hunger  of  my  brother,  but  to  fulfil  the  will  and 
commandment  of  my  God."  \ 

This  perversion  of  charity  into  a  form  of  self- 
justification  or  self-esteem  finds  no  support  in  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  Christ.  On  the  contrary,  he  de- 
mands a  rigid  self-inquiry  into  the  motives  of  giv- 
ing. Am  I  charitable  because  I  am  too  busy  or 
too  indolent  to  refuse  ?  Is  it  with  me  as  with  the 
giver  whom  Jesus  with  such  irony  condemned,  who 
would  not  give  because  he  was  a  friend,  but  be- 
cause of  his  friend's  importunity  would  rise  and 
give  him  ?  Am  I  tarnished  with  what  Mr.  Spencer 
called  the  flunkeyism  of  benevolence,^  which  is  glad 

»  "Religio  Medici,"  II,  2;  cited  by  Lecky,  "History  of  Euro- 
pean Morals,"  1869,  p.  299. 

*  "Prindples  of  Ethics,"  1893,  II,  p.  284. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  USES  OF  MONEY       151 

to  pay  for  social  prominence  and  for  a  high  place 
in  the  lists  of  givers  ?  Then  I  may  sit  in  the  chief 
seats  of  the  philanthropists  and  receive  their  greet- 
ings in  the  market-place,  but  I  do  not  escape  the 
burning  judgment  of  Jesus  Christ,  "Woe  unto  you 
hypocrites,  for  all  your  works  ye  do  for  to  be  seen 
of  men ;  .  .  .  therefore  ye  shall  receive  the  greater 
damnation." 

Thus,  the  problem  of  distributing  money  cannot 
be  separated  from  the  antecedent  problem  of  ad- 
ministering money.  The  steward  in  the  teaching  of 
Jesus  does  not  justify  himself  by  giving  away  his 
Master's  money  lavishly,  but  by  administering  it 
wisely.  The  most  charitable  man  of  business  is 
the  man  who  conducts  his  business  humanely. 
The  stream  of  wealth  is  purified,  not  by  filtering  it 
at  its  outlet,  but  by  cleansing  it  at  its  source.  The 
faithful  steward,  the  diligent  servant,  the  watchful 
porter,  are  givers  not  less  than  those  "who  dis- 
tribute unto  the  poor."  The  first  bring  gifts  of 
fidelity,  diligence,  and  loyalty;  while  the  second 
may  offer  unto  the  Lord  that  which  has  cost  them 
nothing.  The  same  qualification  must  be  made 
concerning  benevolence  by  bequest.  It  may  be  an 
honorable  duty  to  insure  the  continuance  of  one's 
benefactions  after  death;  but  such  distributions, 
though  they  may  be  serviceable  to  charity,  cannot 
be  regarded  as  adequate  substitutes  for  generosity 
and  self-sacrifice  while  one  is  alive.  There  may  be 
but  little  virtue  in  giving  away  what  one  cannot 


152     THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

keep.  Indeed,  it  may  be,  in  effect,  a  giving  by  one's 
heirs  rather  than  by  one's  self.  "Defer  not  charities 
till  death,"  said  Bacon,  "for  certainly,  if  a  man 
weigh  it  rightly,  he  that  hath  done  so  is  rather 
liberal  of  another  man's  than  of  his  own."  ^ 

Approaching,  then,  the  problem  of  giving  with 
this  appreciation  of  its  subordinate  place  and 
peculiar  difficulty,  one  is  soon  met  by  further  and 
more  positive  directions.  In  the  first  place,  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  prescribes  that  giving  should  be, 
so  far  as  practicable,  individuaUzed  and  personal 
rather  than  mechanical  and  institutional.  His 
way  of  helping  was,  as  the  author  of  "Ecce  Homo" 
said,  "by  contagiop  from  another  living  soul." 
The  one  lost  sheep,  the  one  lost  coin,  the  one  lost 
son,  was  his  search.  His  sympathy  was  "a  love 
for  the  race,  or  for  the  ideal  of  man,  in  each  individ- 
ual."2  "That  unit  of  value,"  Phillips  Brooks 
said  in  one  of  his  noblest  paragraphs,  "was  never 
out  of  the  soul  of  Jesus.  After  the  day  when  he 
told  them  the  story  which  they  could  never  forget, 
of  how  there  was  a  man  with  a  hundred  sheep  .  .  . 
and  of  how  the  shepherd  left  all  the  rest  and  foimd 
the  one  that  was  lost,  and  came  singing  down  the 
hill  with  the  rescued  sheep  upon  his  shoulder,  — 
after  that  keynote  of  the  individual  had  been  struck, 
it  never  ceased  to  be  heard  through  everything 

1  Essays,  XXXIV. 

2  "Ecce  Homo,"  Ch.  XIV,  "The  Enthusiasm  of  Humanity;" 
Ch.  XVIII,  "The  Law  of  Edification." 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  USES  OF  MONEY      1 53 

that  Jesus  said  and  did."  ^  Giving,  therefore,  is  a 
meagre  substitute  for  Christian  charity  if  it  be  not 
the  giving  of  one's  self,  one's  time,  thought,  and  com- 
passion, as  person  to  person,  as  life  to  life.  The 
master-words  of  the  Gospels  thus  become  the  key 
of  eflfective  philanthropy.  It  is  the  transmission  of 
Power ;  it  is  the  contagion  of  Life. 

Here  is  a  guide-post  set  where  many  roads  of  giv- 
ing divide.  That  way  of  giving  is  best  to  follow 
which  is  most  personal  or  educative,  and  least  offi- 
cial or  external.  Most  imperative  and  most  re- 
warding are  the  immediate  ministries  of  neighborly 
responsibility,  the  friendly  hand  and  the  reenforcing 
will,  where  the  transmission  of  power  and  life  is  least 
obstructed.  The  lame  man  lay  at  the  gate  of  the 
Temple  "to  ask  alms  of  them  that  entered,"  but 
Peter  said  to  him :  "Silver  and  gold  have  I  none, 
but  such  as  I  have  give  I  thee.  In  the  name  of 
Jesus  Christ  of  Nazareth  rise  up  and  walk."  That 
is  a  perfect  expression  of  Christian  charity.  To 
contribute  power  is  better  than  to  contribute  alms. 
To  give  life  is  better  than  to  give  subscriptions. 
To  give  one's  life  as  a  ransom  is  more  costly  than 
to  give  a  ransom  for  being  left  alone.  The  gifts  of 
Life  and  Power  are  equally  blessed  to  give  and  to 
receive. 

This  principle  is  less  easily  applied  in  cases  of 
institutional  or  organized  relief,  where  giving  must 
be  in  some  degree  delegated,  and  money  becomes  a 
^  "The  Influence  of  Jesus,"  1879,  P-  "2. 


154     THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

substitute  for  personal  service.  Yet  here  also  the 
test  is  conclusive.  That  organization  or  method  is 
best  which  is  most  humanized.  The  placing-out 
system,  for  example,  for  children,  for  the  insane, 
for  the  feeble-minded,  is  a  scientific  recognition  of 
the  Christian  ideal.  It  displaces  institutionaUsm 
by  humanity ;  it  offers  not  asylums,  but  homes ; 
it  provides  not  keepers,  but  parents.  It  is  the  same 
with  the  most  unimpeachable  forms  of  charity. 
To  communicate  courage,  to  fortify  character,  to 
revive  hope,  to  bring  a  person  to  a  person,  the 
friendly  visitor  to  the  poor,  the  nurse  to  the  sick, 
the  teacher  to  the  ignorant,  the  strong  to  the  weak, 
is  the  investment  in  giving  which  the  disciple  of 
Jesus  Christ  should  seek.  Jesus  did  not,  so  far  as 
the  record  reports,  give  alms;  he  gave  himself. 
The  call  of  God  was  to  give  Power  and  Life.  "  He 
hath  anointed  me  ...  to  heal  the  broken-hearted, 
to  preach  deliverance  to  the  captives,  and,  recovering 
of  sight  to  the  blind,  to  set  at  Uberty  them  that  are 
bruised."  The  Samaritan  gave  little  money,  but 
much  time  and  care ;  and  it  was  his  intelligent  and 
continuous  compassion  more  than  his  pence  which 
made  him  a  neighbor. 

"Who  giveth  himself  with  his  gift  feeds  three, 
Himself,  his  hungering  neighbor,  and  Me." 

From  the  principle  of  individualization  in  giving 
there  follows  the  principle  of  education  for  the  giver. 
If  a  person  is  to  serve  a  person,  if  a  Ufe  is  to  com- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  USES  OF  MONEY      155 

municate  power,  then  it  must  be  educated  to  under- 
stand and  fulfil  this  difl&cult  task.  The  science 
of  relief  must  guide  the  sentiment  of  compassion. 
Education  in  giving  is  essential  for  the  prevention 
both  of  economic  and  of  moral  waste.  An  English 
writer  has  lately  said  that  economic  progress  may 
be  measured  by  the  appUcation  of  mind  to  industry. 
It  is  not  less  true  that  philanthropic  progress  is  to 
be  measured  by  the  appHcation  of  mind  to  giving. 
To  this  point,  however,  Christian  sentiment  has 
come  with  great  reluctance.  IntelHgence  and  dis- 
cretion appUed  to  giving  have  often  seemed  to  rob 
it  of  spontaneity  and  grace.  How  can  one,  it  is 
asked,  obey  the  command,  "Give  to  him  that 
asketh  thee,"  and  at  the  same  time  restrain  him- 
self from  indiscriminate  and  emotional  benevo- 
lence ?  Nowhere,  therefore,  has  it  been  harder  for 
the  science  of  charity  to  take  root  than  in  the  soil 
of  the  Christian  Church.  The  instincts  of  piety 
have,  as  a  rule,  seemed  more  trustworthy  guides 
than:  — 

"Organized  charity,  scrimped  and  iced, 
In  the  name  of  a  cautious,  statistical  Christ." 

Uneducated  giving,  however,  when  more  closely 
scrutinized,  turns  out  as  a  rule  to  be  little  more  than 
disguised  selfishness.  The  sight  of  suffering  pains ; 
the  story  of  want  distresses;  the  contrast  of  cir- 
cumstances shocks;  and  one  cannot  rest  imtil  he 
gives.    Very  different  from  this  intermittent  dis- 


156     THE   CHRISTIAN  LITE  IN  THE  MODERN   WORLD 

composure  is  the  "  Caritas  "  of  Christianity.  Being 
concerned  with  personality  quite  as  much  as  with 
poverty,  its  giving  must  be  intelligent  and  educa- 
tive. Charity,  the  Apostle  says,  "buildeth  up." 
It  may  give  to  every  one  that  asketh,  but  it  gives, 
not  the  help  which  may  pauperize,  but  the  help 
which  may  "edify."  "Though  I  bestow  all  my 
goods  to  feed  the  poor,  and  have  not  charity,  it 
profiteth  menothing."  Charity  is  but  another  name 
for  rational,  effective,  and  enduring  love.  In  this 
education  of  the  giver  there  is,  therefore,  no  conflict 
of  science  with  sentiment.  On  the  contrary,  as 
the  aim  of  machinery  is  to  transmit  power,  so  the 
science  of  philanthropy  is  designed  to  transmit 
sentiment.  Science  which  is  mere  officiaUsm  is  as 
ineffective  as  sentiment  which  is  mere  emotional- 
ism. It  is  easy  to  be  recklessly  kind ;  it  is  equally 
easy  to  be  timidly  wise;  but  to  be  scientifically 
sympathetic  and  intelligently  humane,  —  that  is 
the  difl&cult  task  of  Christian  giving. 

It  may  be  urged  that  rational  giving  is  likely  to 
be  less  generous  than  emotional  giving ;  that  to  sit 
down  with  one's  conscience  at  the  beginning  of 
the  year  and  apportion  one's  giving  according  to 
one's  means,  is  to  repress  the  boimty  of  the  heart. 
This  conclusion,  however,  is  contradicted  by  the 
experience  of  those  communities  where  this  ap- 
plication of  science  to  giving  has  been  made. 
Emotional  giving  is,  as  a  rule,  highly  deceptive. 
One    thinks   he    has   given   much    and    excuses 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  USES  OF  MONEY       157 

himself  for  giving  more,  when,  in  fact,  he  has 
made  the  same  excuse  already.  He  obeys  the 
injunction  that  his  left  hand  shall  not  know 
what  his  right  hand  has  done;  but  he  forgets 
that  his  right  hand  has  remained  ia  his  pocket. 
A  home  where  children  are  educated  to  give  as 
well  as  to  receive,  and  where  parents  approach  the 
problem  of  giving  money  with  the  same  conscien- 
tious scrutiny  which  they  apply  to  investing  money, 
does  not  find  its  instincts  of  compassion  drying  up, 
but  on  the  contrary  is  deepening  the  channel  for  their 
fertilizing  flow.  There  is  no  more  risk  to  giving 
from'  science  than  from  sentimentahsm,  from  hard- 
heartedness  than  from  soft-headedness.  As  has 
been  seen  in  the  case  of  the  family,  one  should  love 
not  only  with  the  heart  and  soul  but  with  the  mind. 
To  apply  the  mind  to  love,  to  rationalize  sym- 
pathy and  make  compassion  wise,  is  to  accept  the 
education  which  the  teaching  of  Jesus  requires. 

These  principles  of  individualization  in  giving 
and  of  education  to  give  are  finally  summed  up  in 
what  may  be  called  the  spiritualization  of  giving. 
What  often  blights  the  giving  of  money,  like  the 
making  and  spending  of  it,  is  the  practical  mate- 
rialism which  dominates  so  much  of  modern  life. 
If  one  only  has  enough  money,  and  does  not  spend 
too  much,  and  gives  away  a  Uttle,  he  may  easily 
seem  to  himself  to  have  fulfilled  the  whole  duty  of 
man  and  to  be  ready  for  the  judgment  of  Grod. 
Much  good  may,  imquestionably,  be  done  with 


158     THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

money,  and  it  is  better  to  do  good  with  money 
than  not  to  do  good  at  all.  The  giving  of  money 
may  even  be,  in  certain  instances,  the  best  avail- 
able symbol  of  self-denial  and  love.  What  seems 
to  be  less  obvious,  however,  is  the  fact  that  there 
is  much  which  money  cannot  do,  either  for  the  rich 
or  the  poor;  that  there  are  desires  and  demands 
which  cannot  be  bought  or  sold ;  that  behind  the 
external  and  material  experiences  of  Hfe  there  are 
profounder  needs  which  can  be  satisfied  only  by 
the  spirituaUzation  of  giving. 

One  of  the  most  surprising  experiences  which 
meets  many  well-intentioned  givers  is  the  sense  of 
their  insufficiency  and  helplessness.  Their  alms 
seem  wasted ;  their  advice  is  repelled ;  they  cannot 
bridge  the  chasm  which  lies  between  their  kindly 
giving  and  its  unresponsive  recipients.  What  is  the 
meaning  of  this  curious  impotency  ?  It  means  that 
a  spiritual  relation  has  been  mistaken  for  a  ma- 
terial relation,  that  the  needs  to  be  supplied  have 
seemed  to  be  money,  food,  and  clothing,  when  they 
were,  even  more  primarily,  courage,  self-control, 
and  hope.  Material  needs  may  be  easy  to  supply, 
but  spiritual  giving  is  possible  for  those  only  who 
have  these  blessings  themselves.  Charity,  that  is 
to  say,  is  inseparable  from  character.  To  give,  one 
must  have.  There  is  much  good  which  one  can- 
not do  without  being  good  himself.  "Bear  ye  one 
another's  burdens,"  wrote  the  apostle  Paul,  but 
almost  in   the    same   sentence   he   added,   "For 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  USES  OF  MONEY      1 59 

every  man  shall  bear  his  own  burden."  To  help 
another  in  the  deeper  experiences  of  his  life,  one 
must  have  been  helped  himself.  Inexperience  of 
hardness  leaves  the  kindest  philanthropist  impotent 
before  the  mystery  of  lives  that  are  hard.  Only 
the  bearer  of  his  own  burdens  is  strong  enough  to 
lay  on  his  shoulder  the  added  burden  of  other  lives. 
Among  the  deep  sayings  of  Jesus  Christ  none  is 
more  searching  than  that  which  defines  the  nature 
of  his  own  consecration.  "For  their  sakes,"  he 
says,  "I  sanctify  myself."  "For  their  sakes,"  — 
that  was  the  end  of  his  mission,  —  the  giving  of 
life  a  ransom  for  many ;  but  the  beginning  of  that 
service  of  others  was  in  the  sanctifying  of  himself. 
Having  found  the  strength  of  communion  with 
God,  he  could  apply  that  strength  to  the  helping 
of  man.  That  is  his  gospel  of  giving.  "If  any 
man  will  come  after  me,"  he  says,  "let  him  deny 
himself  and  take  up  his  cross  and  follow  me."  EflSi- 
ciency  comes  of  experience.  Self-denial  equips  for 
service.  It  is  only  the  bearers  of  their  own  crosses 
who  can  be  the  saviours  of  other  souls. 

How  far-reaching,  then,  become  these  principles 
of  the  uses  of  money  !  Whether  one  make  it,  or 
spend  it,  or  give  it  away,  he  is,  in  fact,  dealing  with 
a  material  symbol  of  the  spiritual  life.  His  scrutiny 
and  his  detachment  in  spending,  the  individualiza- 
tion and  education  of  his  giving,  are  tests  of  his 
own  character.  The  problems  of  expenditure 
and  of  philanthropy  are  not   separable  from  the 


l6o     THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

problems  of  bearing  one's  own  burdens  and  car- 
rying one's  own  cross.  Are  such  uses  of  money 
inconsistent  with  the  conditions  of  the  modern 
world?  On  the  contrary,  the  more  closely  they 
are  examined,  the  more  obvious  it  becomes  that 
they  are  principles  which  stand  like  supporting 
arches  under  the  whole  structure  of  modem 
life.  The  humanization  of  industry  is  the  last 
word  of  financial  sagacity  and  economic  fore- 
sight; the  scrutinizing  of  spending  is  the  only 
barrier  which  stands  between  Western  civilization 
and  the  flood  of  gross  materialism  which  swept 
away  the  splendor  of  ancient  Rome ;  and  the  in- 
dividualizing and  spiritualizing  of  giving  are  the 
only  terms  on  which  charity  may  cease  to  be  an 
offence  and  insult,  and  remain  consistent  with  fra- 
temalism  and  self-respect.  It  is  no  easy  task  in 
days  like  these  to  use  money  well.  It  is  hard  for 
a  rich  man,  either  as  spender  or  as  giver,  to  enter 
the  Kingdom  of  God.  Yet  social  evolution  has, 
at  least,  reached  that  dramatic  point  where  the 
mechanism  of  modem  life  is  waiting  for  the  influx 
of  Christian  power,  and  where  the  hope  of  social 
stability  and  peace  depends  on  the  practicability 
of  the  Christian  life  in  the  modem  world. 


VI 

THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE   MODERN   STATE 

One  of  the  most  curious  characteristics  of  the 
modem  world  is  the  limited  range  in  which  the 
social  conscience  appears  to  operate.  If,  as  has 
been  suggested,  the  area  of  social  relationships  is 
pictured  as  a  series  of  concentric  circles  surrounding 
the  individual  life,  then  it  becomes  evident  that 
the  sense  of  duty  slackens  as  the  radius  of  respon- 
sibiHty  is  prolonged.  Within  the  interior  circle 
of  the  Family,  for  example,  in  spite  of  many  trage- 
dies of  instability  and  disruption,  there  remains 
a  prevailing  tradition  of  self-forgetfulness  and 
sacrifice  which  keeps  the  normal  home  uninfected 
by  the  poison  of  inconstant  love.  As  one  enters 
the  larger  area  of  the  industrial  world,  he  is  met  by 
many  signs  of  the  times  which  encourage  the  behef 
that,  in  spite  of  the  strategies  and  brutalities  of 
trade,  the  moralization  of  business  is  not  impossible. 
When,  however,  he  passes  to  the  more  comprehen- 
sive circle  of  social  relations,  where  both  families 
and  industries  are  associated  in  a  political  Com- 
monwealth, and  considers  the  motives  which  control 
either  local  or  national  politics,  he  may  easily  be 

li  i6i 


l62     THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

led  to  conclude  that  moral  idealism  has  spent  its 
force  before  radiating  so  far,  and  that  political  life 
is  little  else  than  a  scene  of  intrigue,  plundering, 
and  treachery. 

What,  for  example,  could  be  more  disheart- 
ening to  one  who  looks  for  the  purification  of 
politics  than  the  prevailing  condition  of  city-gov- 
ernment in  the  United  States,  with  its  scramble 
of  party  politicians  for  the  spoils  of  ofl&ce,  and 
its  cynical  contempt  for  both  economy  and  efl5- 
ciency, — a  situation  which  has  provoked  one  of 
the  most  distinguished  of  Americans  to  remark : 
"I  would  desire  for  my  country  three  things  above 
all  others  to  supplement  our  existing  American 
civilization :  from  Great  Britain  her  administration 
of  criminal  justice,  from  Germany  her  theatre,  and 
from  any  European  country,  save  Russia,  Spain 
and  Turkey,  its  government  of  cities."  ^  Or  what, 
again,  can  be  said  of  the  principles  and  practices 
of  national  politics  which  appear  to  be  approved 
by  the  most  favored  countries  of  the  modem 
world  ?  Is  legislation  habitually  guided  by  a  com- 
prehensive and  far-sighted  ideaUsm,  or  is  it,  in 
the  main,  a  balancing  of  temporary  expediencies, 
a  promotion  of  party  interests,  not  to  speak  of  its 
baser  uses  to  promote  personal  ambition  or  gain  ? 
Is  not  an  English  observer  justified  in  remarking 
that  while  patriotic  sentiment  is  conspicuous  in 
the  United  States,  the  "sense  of  public  spirit  .  .  , 
1  Andrew  D.  White,  "  Autobiography,"  1905,  II,  p.  226. 


CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  MODERN   STATE      1 63 

seems  to  be  little  developed,"  ^  or,  in  other  words, 
that  Americans  are  more  inclined  to  boast  of  their 
country  than  to  make  sacrifices  for  her?  "Politi- 
cal life,"  Professor  Cunningham  concludes,  "ap- 
pears to  be  regarded  in  America  as  the  mere  weigh- 
ing of  larger  and  smaller  interests  against  each 
other.  .  .  .  The  conception  of  government  as 
trusteeship  for  the  community  ...  is  curiously 
lacking." 

If  one  goes  still  further  and  considers  the  pre- 
vailing characteristics  of  international  diplomacy, 
must  not  the  indictment  be  even  more  severe? 
What  could  be  more  brutally  cynical  than  the 
plots  of  statesmen  to  occupy  a  territory  or  to  ruin 
an  ally,  as  though  the  world  were  a  chess-board 
and  the  nations  pawns  in  a  great  game?  What 
essential  difference  is  there  between  the  negotia- 
tions of  diplomatists  to  despoil  a  neighboring  king- 
dom and  the  plans  of  burglars  to  rob  a  bank? 
When  Crispi  protested  to  Bismarck  that  in  the 
taking  over  by  Austria  of  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina 
Italy  "would  find  herself  clasped  as  in  a  vice," 
the  master  of  statecraft  calmly  rephed,  as  though 
the  Balkan  States  were  a  subject  for  scientific 
vivisection:  "If  Austria  takes  Bosnia,  Italy  can 
take  Albania,  or  some  other  Turkish  province  on 
the  Adriatic."  ^    Or  when,  again,  Italy  found  the 

^  W.  Cunningham,  "  Christianity  and  Social  Questions,"  1910, 

P-S4. 

*  "Memoirs  of  Francesco  Crispi,"  1912,  II,  p.  33. 


1 64     THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

north  of  Africa  becoming  French,  no  further  prov- 
ocation seemed  necessary  to  justify  an  outrageous 
raid  on  Tripoli.  Or  when,  again,  a  Christian  re- 
volt against  Turkish  oppression  united  the  Balkan 
Peninsula  in  a  holy  war,  the  cynical  neutrality  of 
the  Great  Powers  combined  with  the  forces  of 
national  jealousy  and  greed  to  convert  that  cru- 
sade into  a  colossal  tragedy.  And  what  shall  be 
said  of  the  Christian  nations  of  Northern  Europe, 
as  they  multiply  their  armaments  in  the  name  of 
peace,  or  watch  the  regeneration  of  China  like  dis- 
appointed heirs  who  have  prematurely  divided  the 
sick  man's  estate?  "Without  justice,"  said  St. 
Augustine,  as  if  contemplating  these  modem  inci- 
dents, "what  are  kingdoms  but  high-way  robberies 
on  a  grand  scale  ?  .  .  .  Indeed,  that  was  an  apt  and 
true  reply  which  was  given  to  Alexander  the  Great 
by  a  pirate  whom  he  had  seized.  For  when  that 
king  had  asked  the  man  how  he  durst  so  molest 
the  sea,  he  answered  with  bold  pride :  '  How 
darest  thou  molest  the  whole  world  ?  But  because 
I  do  it  with  a  httle  ship  I  am  called  a  robber,  whilst 
thou  who  dost  it  with  a  great  fleet  art  styled  Em- 
peror.' "  ^  Is  not  Milton's  description  of  politics 
in  the  Seventeenth  Century  applicable  to  a  later 
age,  "How  to  keep  the  floating  carcass  of  a  crazy 
or  diseased  monarchy  or  State  betwixt  wind  and 
water,  swimming  still  upon  her  own  dead  lees,  — 

^  "City  of  God,"  Bk.  IV,  Ch.  4.     (Quid  sunt  regno,  nisi  magna 
lairocinia?)  j 


CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  MODERN  STATE       165 

that  now  is  the  deep  design  of  a  politician."^ 
Is  not  statecraft  so  cunning  an  art  that,  as  Lord 
Beaconsfield  once  satirically  said,  "It  is  doubtful 
whether  good  men  should  be  intrusted  with  the  con- 
duct of  public  affairs. "  ^  Was  not  Lord  John  Russell 
justified  in  writing  to  Lord  Cowley,  in  1859,  con- 
cerning the  annexation  of  the  Duchies  to  Piedmont : 
"I  could  not  answer  ...  in  a  despatch,  for  I 
should  use  terms  of  abhorrence  and  indignation 
too  strong  for  eyes  and  ears  diplomatic.  The 
disposal  of  Tuscany  and  Modena  as  if  they  were 
so  many  firkins  of  butter  is  somewhat  too  prof- 
ligate." ^  *'I  hate  a  lie,"  said  Bismarck  to  Crispi, 
with  perhaps  not  absolute  accuracy,  "but  I  confess 
that  in  certain  rare  instances  in  my  political  life 
I  have  had  to  resort  to  it" ;  ^  and  with  a  finer  dip- 
lomatic instinct  Cavour  remarked :  "I  understand 
the  art  of  misleading  diplomats.  I  tell  them  the 
truth,  and  am  certain  that  they  will  not  believe 
me."  "As  to  the  title  of  statesman,"  said  John 
Bright  in  1868,^  "I  have  seen  so  much  intrigue 
and  ambition,  so  much  selfishness  and  inconsistency 
in  the  character  of  so-called  statesmen,  that  I  have 
always  been  anxious  to  disclaim  the  title.  I  have 
been  content  to  describe  myself  as  a  simple  citizen." 

*"Of    Reformation    touching     Church    Discipline,"    etc.; 
"Works"  (Pickering),  1851,  III,  p.  34. 

*  Spectator,  Nov.  8,  1913. 

•  Thayer,  "Life  and  Times  of  Cavoiu:,"  iQii,  II,  p.  129. 

*  "Crispi  bei  Bismarck,"  1894,  s.  133. 

•  G.  M.  Trevelyan,  "Life  of  John  Bright,"  1913,  p.  386. 


l66     THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE   IN  THE   MODERN  WORLD 

Must  one,  then,  confess  that  these  testimonies 
completely  represent  the  political  life  of  the  modern 
world?  Must  the  moral  ideals  which  Christian 
faith  has  nurtured  be  regarded  as  wholly  inappli- 
cable to  statesmanship  or  legislation?  Has  the 
circle  of  pohtical  action  so  extended  a  radius  that 
the  sense  of  responsibility  fails  to  reach  its  circum- 
ference? If  this  conclusion  were  inevitable,  it 
would  involve  the  further  confession  that  modem 
civihzation  itself  is  a  scene  of  moral  decline,  where 
each  extension  of  national  and  international  re- 
lations carries  the  world  farther  from  moral  sanc- 
tions and  laws.  Spiritual  security,  under  such 
conditions,  must  be  sought,  not  by  political  read- 
justments, but  —  as  Tolstoi  taught  —  by  retreat 
from  all  forms  of  governmental  restraint.  Diplo- 
macy would  be  a  name  for  determination  backed 
by  force,  as  in  the  famous  saying  of  a  distinguished 
American  concerning  the  Panama  Canal,  "As 
nobody  else  was  able  to  deal  with  the  matter, 
I  dealt  with  it  myself, "  —  a  way  of  procedure 
concerning  which  a  competent  critic  remarks: 
**No  British  sovereign,  or  French  President,  or 
Turkish  Sultan,  hardly  any  Russian  Tsar,  could 
act  in  a  manner  so  arbitrary.  .  .  .  The  scope 
of  the  powers  of  the  Head  of  the  United  States 
is  .  .  .  positively  Montenegrin."  ^ 

When,  however,  one  reconsiders  the  history  of 
political  philosophy,  he  is  led  to  recall  a  long  series  of 
*  W.  M.  Fullerton,  "Problems  of  Power,"  1913,  p.  35. 


CHRISTIAN  LITE  AND  THE  MODERN   STATE      1 67 

teachers  who  have  seen  in  forms  of  government  some- 
thing very  different  from  an  opportunity  for  aggran- 
dizement or  aggression.  The  State,  to  their  imagi- 
nations, has  appeared  to  be,  not  a  compact  of  con- 
venience, maintained  by  the  ambition  of  rulers  or 
the  interests  of  trade,  but  a  spiritual  creation,  an 
incarnation  of  social  morality,  an  instrument  of 
ethical  idealism.  Unrealizable  and  Utopian  such 
teachings  in  many  details  may  have  been,  but 
succeeding  generations  have  inherited  from  them 
an  indestructible  faith  in  the  possible  moralization 
of  politics. 

The  Republic  of  Plato,  for  example,  in  which 
philosophers  were  to  be  kings,  and  kings  "to 
have  the  spirit  and  power  of  philosophy,"  was, 
in  one  aspect,  what  Jowett  called  "a  vacant  form 
of  light  on  which  Plato  is  seeking  to  fix  the  eye  of 
mankind  " ;  ^  yet  the  teacher  was  evidently  serious 
in  maintaining  that  "imtil  political  greatness  and 
wisdom  meet  in  one,  .  .  .  cities  will  never  cease 
from  ill."  **The  legislator,"  he  later  prescribed, 
''did  not  aim  at  making  any  one  class  in  the  State 
happy  above  the  rest ;  the  happiness  was  to  be  in 
the  whole  State,  and  he  held  the  citizens  together 
by  persuasion  and  necessity,  making  them  bene- 
factors of  the  State  and  therefore  benefactors  of 
each  other.  .  .  .  They  were  to  be  his  instruments 
in  binding  up  the  State."  ^    In  other  words,  the 

*  "Dialogues  of  Plato,"  1871, 11,  p.  163. 
•"Republic,"  473;  519-520. 


1 68     THE   CHRISTIAN  LITE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

Republic  was  both  a  visionary  ideal,  and  a  practi- 
cable type  of  political  stability  and  peace.  "Most 
men,"  Plato's  editor  concludes,  "live  in  a  corner 
and  see  but  a  little  way  beyond  their  own 
home.  .  .  .  But  in  Plato,  as  from  some  'tower  of 
speculation,'  we  look  into  the  distance  and  behold 
the  future  of  the  world." 

When  one  turns  from  Plato  to  Aristotle,  he  meets 
a  conception  of  the  State  which  is  less  visionary,  but 
not  less  exalted.  "Man  is  a  political  animal." 
"In  the  order  of  nature  the  State  is  prior  to  the 
family  or  the  individual,  for  the  whole  must  neces- 
sarily be  prior  to  the  parts.  Hence  it  is  evident 
that  a  State  is  one  of  the  works  of  nature  .  .  . 
and  that  whoever  is  naturally,  and  not  accidentally, 
unfit  for  Society  is  either  inferior  or  superior  to 
man."  The  State  "contains  in  itself,  if  I  may  so 
speak,  the  perfection  of  independence."  ^ 

These  lofty  sayings  of  the  Greeks  are  repeated  in 
various  keys  by  a  succession  of  prophets  and  seers 
through  later  political  history,  and  have  revived  in 
many  a  discouraged  observer  of  contemporary 
events  his  faith  in  political  idealism.  "That 
man,"  taught  Dante,  "who  is  imbued  with  public 
teachings,  but  cares  not  to  contribute  something 
to  the  public  good,  is  far  in  arrears  of  his  duty,  let 
him  be  assured;  he  is,  indeed,  not  'a  tree  planted 

1  "Politics,"  tr.  Walford,  1853,  Bk.  I,  Ch.  II.  {airdpKeia  = 
Self-sufficiency;  cf.  Barbour,  "A  Philosophic  Study  of  Christian 
Ethics,"  1911,  p.  118.) 


CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  MODERN   STATE      1 69 

by  the  rivers  of  water  that  bringeth  forth  his  fruit 
in  his  season,'  but  rather  a  destructive  whirlpool, 
always  engulfing  and  never  giving  back  what  it  has 
devoured."^  "A  Commonwealth,"  continued  Mil- 
ton in  the  treatise  just  cited,  "ought  to  be  but  as 
one  huge  Christian  personage,  one  mighty  growth 
and  stature  of  an  honest  man,  as  big  and  compact 
in  virtue  as  in  body."  "If  there  be  any  one  that 
makes  many  poor  to  make  a  few  rich,"  said  Crom- 
well, "that  suits  not  a  Commonwealth."  ^ 

Behind  all  these  later  teachings,  and  in  large 
part  their  inspiration,  lie  the  social  prophecies  of 
the  Old  Testament  and  its  prevailing  note  of  polit- 
ical idealism.  Social  stability,  it  was  there  almost 
with  monotony  reiterated,  rests  on  national  right- 
eousness. A  small  nation  might  be  strong  if  it  were 
holy.  "  What  great  nation  is  there  that  hath  a  god 
so  nigh  unto  them  as  the  Lord  our  God  is,  whenso- 
ever we  call  upon  him  ?  "  "  Woe  to  the  oppressing 
city  !  Her  princes  within  her  are  roaring  lions ; 
her  prophets  are  light  and  treacherous  persons ! " 
"  They  that  trust  in  the  Lord  shall  be  as  Mount 
Zion,  which  cannot  be  removed,  but  abideth 
forever."  These  confident  proclamations  of  polit- 
ical ethics  have  sustained  the  hope  of  many  a 
defence  of  honest  government  and  many  a  revolt 
against  oppression. 

None  of  these  doctrines  or  precepts,  however, 

^  "De  Monarchia,"  tr.  Henry,  1904,  Ch.  I. 
*Morley,  "Oliver  Cromwell,"  1900,  p.  339. 


lyo      THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

approaches  in  sweep  of  idealism  or  in  imperative- 
ness of  command  the  social  prophecy  which  meets 
one  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ.  His  attitude 
toward  existing  politics  was,  it  is  true,  determined 
by  his  citizenship  in  a  conquered  province  and  a 
despised  community.  His  patriotism  was  Pales- 
tinian. The  disasters  which  threatened  his  Holy 
City  drew  from  him  both  warnings  and  tears.  "O 
Jerusalem,  Jerusalem,  .  .  .  how  often  would  I 
have  gathered  thy  children  together,  even  as  a 
hen  gathereth  her  chickens  imder  her  wings,  and 
ye  would  not."  "And  when  he  was  come  near,  he 
beheld  the  city,  and  wept  over  it."  With  the 
finest  dialectical  skill,  he  refused  to  be  entangled 
in  the  poHtical  seditions  of  his  time.  When  cer- 
tain of  the  Pharisees  and  the  Herodians  would 
"catch  him  in  his  words,"  he  met  their  demand 
for  loyalty  to  the  throne  with  a  counter-demand 
for  loyalty  to  God.  You  bring  to  me,  he  said,  this 
penny  with  Caesar's  image  as  the  symbol  of  im- 
perial authority;  but  I  bring  to  you  the  message 
of  my  Father  and  demand  of  you  the  obedience  of 
faith.  As  you  are  pledged  to  render  to  Cassar  the 
things  which  are  Caesar's,  so  pledge  yourselves  also 
to  offer  to  God  the  things  which  are  God's.  "And 
they  could  not  take  hold  of  his  words." 

The  teaching  of  Jesus  was,  then,  not  a  Gospel 
of  political  revolt.  "It  must  have  struck  every 
attentive  reader  of  the  New  Testament,"  Lord 
Hugh  Cecil  has  lately  pointed  out,  "that  its  direct 


CHRISTIAN  LIFE   AND  THE  MODERN  STATE      171 

teaching  in  respect  to  matters  of  State  is  slight 
and  even  meagre."  ^  When,  however,  this  pro- 
vincial teacher,  whose  primary  concern  is  not  for 
legislation  but  for  regeneration,  and  who  refuses 
to  be  involved  in  a  fruitless  conflict  with  Imperial 
Rome,  sets  forth  his  own  conception  of  a  Christian 
Commonwealth,  he  pictures  a  spiritual  Kingdom 
of  whose  extent  even  Caesar  had  never  dreamed, 
and  before  whose  power  Rome  was  soon  to  fall. 
Whether  the  Kingdom  of  God,  which  became  the 
burden  of  his  preaching,  was  to  be  ethical  or 
eschatological  in  form,  to  come  through  some 
catastrophic  change  or  to  begin  within,  or  both, 
may  remain  a  debated  problem  of  Biblical  inter- 
pretation; but  of  the  general  character  and  sig- 
nificance of  his  ideal  there  can  be  no  doubt.  It 
was  to  be  a  social  regeneration.  A  new  world 
was  to  issue  from  the  new  message.  To  herald 
its  coming  was  the  mission  of  Jesus.  The  first 
annoimcement  of  his  purpose  records  that  he  "  came 
into  Galilee,  preaching  the  Gospel  of  the  king- 
dom of  God."  "To  organize  a  society,"  said  the 
author  of  "  Ecce  Homo,"  "and  to  bind  the  members 
of  it  together  by  the  closest  ties,  was  the  business 
of  his  Ufe."  ^  This  Christian  society,  however,  was 
to  be  much  more  comprehensive  than  imperial 
Rome.  A  universal  Republic,  a  commonwealth 
of  humanity,  a  spiritualized  world,  was  to  grow 

*  "Conservatism,"  191 2,  p.  75. 
'"Ecce  Homo,"  1867,  p.  103. 


172     THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

like  a  great  tree  from  the  seed  sown  by  Jesus 
Christ.  The  Kingdom  of  God  was  not  only  a 
gift  to  be  received,  but  a  task  to  be  performed.  To 
the  realization  of  this  mighty  enterprise  the  dis- 
ciples of  Jesus  daily  pledge  themselves  as  they 
join  in  their  Lord's  Prayer.  To  convert  this 
ideal  into  reahty  is  their  supreme  desire.  The 
Christian  religion  is  either  the  vainest  of  mockeries, 
or  else  it  is  an  inconquerable  faith  that  the  King- 
dom of  God  is  more  than  a  dream,  and  that  His  will 
may  some  day  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven. 
The  teaching  of  Jesus  has  often  been  compared 
at  this  point  with  the  political  Utopia  proposed  by 
Plato;  and  there  are  many  striking  analogies 
between  the  Greek  and  the  Christian  ideals.  Both 
contemplated  a  world  where  the  Idea  of  the  Good 
might  perfectly  prevail.  That  which  to  Plato 
was  the  "Ideal  of  a  perfect  State,"  ^  was  to  Jesus 
the  Kingdom  "prepared  from  the  foimdation  of 
the  world";  and  to  the  writer  of  the  Epistle  to 
the  Hebrews,  "the  pattern  shewed  in  the  mount." 
Plato's  teaching  of  the  "nature  of  justice  and  the 
perfectly  just  man,"  to  which  we  look  "in  order 
that  we  might  judge  of  our  own  happiness  and  un- 
happiness,"  is  lifted  in  the  Gospels  into  the  great 
sa)dngs :  "Seek  first  the  Kingdom  of  God  and  His 
righteousness"  ;  "Be  ye  therefore  perfect,  even  as 
your  Father  which  is  in  heaven  is  perfect."  One 
fundamental  difference,  however,  has  made  the 

1 "  Republic,"  tr.  Jowett,  472. 


CHRISTIAN   LIFE  AND  THE  MODERN   STATE      1 73 

Republic  a  visionary  dream  and  the  Gospel  a  prac- 
ticable hope.  To  Plato  the  moralization  of  politics 
was  to  be  the  task  of  those  elect  natures  in  whona 
"political  greatness  and  wisdom  meet  in  one." 
A  spiritual  aristocracy  was  to  be  the  hope  of  the 
world,  while  commoner  natures  were  to  "stand 
aside."  So  long  as  this  rule  of  the  best  was 
lacking,  the  part  of  a  wise  citizen  was  to  retreat 
from  the  disorders  of  his  own  age,  "like  one  who 
retreats  under  the  shelter  of  a  wall  in  the  storm 
of  dust  and  sleet  .  .  .  and  is  content  if  only  he 
can  live  his  own  life  and  be  pure  from  evil  and  un- 
righteousness." ^  No  such  self-considering  flight 
from  an  unredeemed  world  is  permissible  to  the 
disciple  of  Jesus  Christ.  He  is  bidden,  not  to  hide 
from  the  storm,  but  to  face  it;  not  to  shelter  his 
own  life,  but  to  seek  and  save  the  lives  that  are 
lost.  In  short,  he  is  called  to  a  work  of  social 
redemption.  He  comes  not  to  be  ministered  unto, 
but  to  minister;  to  give,  not  a  doctrine  for  the 
satisfaction  of  the  few,  but  a  life  for  the  ransom 
of  many.  "Evils,  Theodorus,"  said  Plato,  "can 
never  perish.  .  .  .  Wherefore  we  ought  to  fly 
away  thither,  and  to  fly  thither  is  to  become  like 
God,  so  far  as  this  is  possible."^  "Blessed  are 
ye,"  said  Jesus,  in  quite  another  spirit,  "when 
men  .  .  .  shall  say  all  manner  of  evil  against  you." 

^"Republic,"  496.    The  contrast  is   convincingly  described 
in  Barbour,  op.  cit.,  p.  204  flf. 

»  "Theaetetus,"  176,  tr.  Jowett,  III,  p.  400. 


174     THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

"I  pray,  not  that  Thou  shouldest  take  them  out 
of  the  world,  but  that  Thou  shouldest  keep  them 
from  the  evil."  "Thy  will  be  done,  on  earth  as 
it  is  in  heaven."  The  teaching  of  Plato  remains 
an  intellectual  solace  for  those  to  whom  the  ten- 
dency to  social  equality  seems  a  menace  and  of- 
fence ;  the  Gospel  of  Christ  is  the  charter  of  a  spirit- 
ual democracy  which,  in  spite  of  the  hypocrisy 
and  unscrupulousness  that  have  stained  the  history 
of  Christian  nations,  still  remains  the  political  ideal 
which  commands  the  imagination  of  the  world. 

Here,  then,  are  two  types  of  political  ethics 
which  seem-  in  absolute  conflict  with  each  other,  — 
the  conception  of  the  State  as  an  instrument  of 
gain  or  conquest,  and  the  conception  of  the  State 
as  a  moral  organism,  an  agent  of  idealism,  a  pre- 
liminary stage  in  the  evolution  of  the  Kingdom  of 
God.  At  this  point,  however,  where  it  would 
seem  that  a  choice  must  be  made,  there  is  disclosed 
the  perennial  paradox  of  politics,  which  no  serious- 
minded  statesman  or  citizen  can  safely  ignore  or 
deny.  On  the  surface  of  events  the  schemes  of  the 
"practical  politician"  may  be,  and  often  are,  tem- 
porarily dominant  and  profitable.  He  may  be 
unscrupulous  in  strategy  and  skilled  in  evasion, 
justifying  the  means  by  the  end,  convinced  that, 
as  an  American  poHtician  is  reported  to  have  said, 
"the  Golden  Rule  has  no  part  in  politics."  His 
success  may  infect  many  minds  with  the  poisonous 
impression  that  politics  is  nothing  else  than  the 


CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  MODERN  STATE      1 75 

manipulation  of  a  machine,  the  dividing  of  spoils, 
or  the  playing  of  a  game  with  the  State  as  the 
board  and  the  people  as  pawns. 

Yet,  when  the  deeper  currents  of  national  feel- 
ing and  permanent  loyalty  are  traced,  they  dis- 
close below  these  turbulent  eddies  of  political 
intrigue  a  less  conspicuous  and  often  unobserved 
movement  of  national  feeling  or  conviction  or  honor 
or  duty,  which  gives  direction  and  momentum  to 
the  stream  of  events,  and  which  has  its  source  in  the 
hidden  springs  of  political  idealism.  The  politician 
who  fancies  his  profession  to  be  fundamentally  one 
of  trades  or  bribes  or  profit  or  partisanship  may 
have  his  day  and  cease  to  be ;  but  the  statesman  who 
identifies  himself  with  a  cause,  an  ideal,  an  even 
remotely  possible  reform,  may  be  swept  with  its 
advance  into  permanent  affection  and  honor.  The 
epochs  which  have  determined  the  destiny  of 
nations  have  not  been,  as  a  rule,  periods  of  com- 
mercial expansion  or  military  success,  but  those 
dramatic  moments  when  some  compelling  ideal  of 
nationality,  liberty,  democracy,  justice,  compas- 
sion, or  religion  has  flashed  before  the  conscience  of 
the  people,  as  the  Cross  appeared  in  the  heavens 
to  Constantine  with  its  summons:  "In  this  sign, 
conquer."  Behind  the  poHtical  achievement  of 
Cavour,  an  event  described  by  Lord  Morley  as 
"the  most  important  fact  in  European  history  for 
two  centuries,"  ^  was  the  ideal  of  a  imited  Italy, 
^  "Notes  on  Politics  and  History,"  1914,  p.  30.  I 


176     THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

seen  from  afar  by  Mazzini,  and  inspiring  the 
volunteers  of  Garibaldi.  It  was  the  resistless 
appeal  to  patriotism  of  Fichte's  "Addresses  to 
the  German  Nation,"  which  fired  the  heart  of 
Prussia  to  repel  Napoleon.  The  brutalities  of 
commercialism  in  England  were  chastened  by  the 
whip  of  Carlyle's  irony.  The  rights  of  the  plain 
people  to  free  bread  and  free  franchise  were  secured 
in  Great  Britain  by  a  Quaker,  of  whom  his  biog- 
rapher said,  "religious  feeling  was  the  very  basis 
of  his  life ;  he  practised  the  silence  of  his  sect  and 
drew  thence  the  strength  of  his  soul,  the  purity 
of  his  heart,  and  the  quality  of  his  speech."  ^  The 
Civil  War  of  the  United  States  in  1861  was,  as 
Wendell  Phillips  said,  "a  conflict  of  ideas.  .  .  . 
Every  soldier  in  each  camp  is  certain  that  he  is 
fighting  for  an  idea  which  holds  the  salvation  of 
the  world."  ^  Even  the  ambition  of  Napoleon 
had  to  disguise  itself  in  the  garb  of  the  glories  of 
France;  and  the  cruelties  of  Alva  to  be  justified 
as  marks  of  devotion  to  the  Catholic  faith. 

Such  is  the  paradox  of  politics.  What  at  first 
appears  to  be  a  record  of  self-seeking  conspiracies 
and  merciless  intrigues  has  been,  in  fact,  at  its  most 
critical  points  determined  by  some  fresh  accession 
of  feeling,  sentiment,  passion,  hope,  or  faith.  The 
politicians  play  the  game,  but  a  veiled  figure  be- 

^  G.  M.  Trevelyan,  "  Life  of  John  Bright,"  1913,  p.  3. 
*  Cited  in  the  convincing  Lectures  of  E.  D.  Adams,  "The 
Power  of  Ideals  in  American  History,"  1913,  p.  59. 


CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE   MODERN  STATE      1 77 

hind  their  backs  prompts  the  decisive  moves  and 
determines  the  final  issue.  The  things  that  are 
seen  are  temporal,  and  the  things  that  are  not 
seen  are  eternal.  Political  schemes  may  accom- 
plish their  immediate  ends,  and  "ideas,"  in 
Eucken's  phrase,  "may  be  overgrown  by  in- 
terests";^ but  as  one  surveys  the  total  move- 
ment of  national  and  international  affairs,  in  its 
slow  yet  resistless  sweep,  it  is  obvious  that  the 
far-sighted  statesman  has  been  he  who,  as  Cavour 
said  of  himself,  has  had  "more  faith  in  ideas  than 
in  cannon  for  mending  the  lot  of  humanity,"  ^ 
and  has  launched  his  cause  on  the  stream  of  na- 
tional idealism  with  the  assurance  that  it  is  the 
river  of  destiny. 

A  well-informed  observer  of  international  affairs, 
whose  views  of  diplomacy  are  far  from  those  of  a 
sentimentalist,  has  stated  this  paradox  in  his  con- 
clusion that  modern  politics  is  dominated  by 
two  forces,  neither  of  which  is  itself  political. 
"Behind  the  facade  of  Government,"  Mr.  Fuller- 
ton  says,  "two  occult  powers  .  .  .  are  now  de- 
termining the  destinies  of  the  world.  One  of 
them  is  the  disseminated  wealth  of  the  democracy 
.  .  .  the  other  is  the  mysterious,  pervasive  force 
known  as  public  opinion."  The  first  of  these 
powers  is  conspicuous  enough.  National  security, 
the  capacity  either  for  self-defence  or  for  aggression, 

^  "Life's  Basis  and  Life's  Ideal,"  ir.  191 1,  p.  363. 
*  Morley,  op.  cit.,  p.  172. 
N 


178     THE   CHRISTIAN   LIFE   IN  THE  MODERN   WORLD 

has  become  largely  a  question  of  money.  Bankers 
may  determine  whether  war  or  peace  shall  prevail. 
The  conflicts  of  nations  are  more  frequently  in- 
cited by  commercial  than  by  political  motives. 
The  second  power,  however,  —  that  of  public 
opinion,  —  is  more  subtle  but  not  less  effective. 
It  is,  in  fact,  another  name  for  the  unprecedented 
part  now  played  by  the  social  conscience  of  a 
nation,  compelHng  politicians  to  represent,  or  at 
least  to  pretend  to  represent,  the  ideals  of  the 
people.  "Idealism,"  this  author  concludes,  "seems 
to  hold  its  own  in  spite  of  the  corrupting  power  of 
wealth."  ^  The  two  forces  may  indeed  operate 
not  in  opposition,  but  in  cooperation.  Wealth 
may  be  an  instrument  of  idealism.  "The  general 
desire  for  reform,  and  the  fact  that  money  is  to-day 
the  chief  method  of  rapid  and  successful  action,  are 
merely  different  aspects  of  the  same  habit  of  mind." 
In  other  words,  though  modern  poHtics  may 
utilize  commercial  advantage,  and  may  accept 
as  its  agents  the  forces  of  money,  navies,  tariffs, 
and  loans,  it  will  proceed  with  hesitancy  and  ap- 
prehension unless  it  be  reenforced  by  the  popular 
will,  the  national  conscience,  the  force  of  public 
opinion,  the  dynamic  of  political  idealism.  What 
the  philosophers  of  government,  from  Plato  to 
Burke,  have  seen  as  a  vision,  thus  turns  out  to  be 
the  only  substantial  foundation  of  a  stable  State. 
The  Kingdom  of  God,  of  which  Jesus  dreamed, 

^  W.  M.  Fullerton,  op.  cit.,  p.  196. 


CHRISTIAN  LIFE   AND   THE   MODERN   STATE       1 79 

may  be  far  from  realization ;  but  to  believe  in  it 
and  to  convert  the  prayer  for  its  coming  into  consist- 
ent and  patient  service,  is  not  only  Christian 
idealism,  but  political  wisdom.  Politics,  in  short, 
has  its  external  machinery  and  its  interior 
d3aiamic,  and  each  factor  has  its  place.  Engineers 
are  necessary,  but  so  also  are  seers.  Precisely 
as  a  system  of  telegraphy  is  externally  a  network 
of  wires  and  posts  and  clicking  instruments,  through 
which  pass  the  unseen  messages  of  minds  and 
hearts,  so  in  a  system  of  politics,  legislation  and 
administration  are  the  intricate  and  ingenious 
links  of  communication  through  which  the  will  of 
people  is  transmitted  and  expressed. 

The  paradox  of  politics  thus  disclosed,  —  its 
superficial  materialism  disguising  its  underlying 
idealism,  its  intended  schemes  overruled  by  its 
unforeseen  emotions,  —  finds  a  most  striking  illus- 
tration in  the  experience  of  the  United  States. 
That  "melting-pot"  of  the  nations,  though  it  may 
some  day  fail  in  its  vast  problem  of  assimilation, 
has  thus  far  succeeded  in  producing  from  its  in- 
finitely varied  materials  a  civilization  which  is  rec- 
ognizable as  the  American  type.  This  type,  how- 
ever, is  not  so  simple  as  its  observers  often  suppose. 
It  has  its  obvious  and  its  more  fundamental  traits, 
and  it  is  not  until  its  paradoxical  character  is 
appreciated  that  the  apparently  illogical  and  often 
surprising  incidents  of  American  politics  are  ex- 
plained. 


l8o     THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE   MODERN  WORLD 

The  obvious  fact  in  the  United  States  is  the 
growth,  on  a  tremendous  scale,  of  a  commercial 
democracy.  Vast  natural  resources  and  a  remark- 
able ingenuity  in  utilizing  them,  energy  joined  with 
opportunity,  have  created  a  people  much  devoted 
to  money-making  and  amazingly  successful  in  that 
pursuit.  Foreign  students  of  the  United  States 
are  so  impressed  by  this  aspect  of  the  national 
character  that  they  are  easily  led  to  believe  it  the 
dominating  force  of  American  life.  The  country, 
they  report,  is  hopelessly  materialized  and  com- 
mercialized, and  its  people  so  unscrupulous  and 
mercenary  as  to  be  described  in  the  markets  of 
Europe  as  the  American  peril.  The  most  distin- 
guished economist  of  Germany,  for  example,  has 
thus  expressed  himself:  ''The  youthful  civiliza- 
tion, the  incompleteness  of  conditions,  the  extraor- 
dinary chance  of  gain  in  a  land  which  thus  far 
seems  inexhaustible,  place  in  the  foreground  the 
'self-made  man,'  completely  devoted  to  the  mak- 
ing of  money.  Precocious  children  and  immature 
youths  throw  themselves  into  the  chase  of  the  dol- 
lar. .  .  .  The  people  have  energy,  but  no  deep  cul- 
ture, no  richness  of  disposition,  no  amiability  .... 
Life  is  all  work,  speculation,  hustle,  gain  or  loss. 
.  .  .  Enthusiasm  is  rare,  self-restraint  is  essential 
for  the  money-maker.  The  sight  of  Niagara  Falls 
excites  in  the  American  only  a  regret  that  so  much 
water-power  is  running  to  waste.  .  .  .  The  life 
of  the  American  has  been  compared  with  a  rushing 


CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  MODERN  STATE       l8l 

locomotive ;  the  European  trudges  by  its  side  as  a 
quiet  pedestrian."  ^  To  the  same  effect  are  the 
conclusions  of  an  English  observer :  "  Business  is 
king.  .  .  .  The  human  soul  can  strike  no  roots  in 
the  America  of  today."  ^  It  is  the  same  indict- 
ment which  Ruskin  made  a  generation  ago,  "The 
Americans  are,  as  a  nation,  undesirous  of  rest  and 
incapable  of  it,  irreverent  of  themselves  both  in 
the  present  and  the  future,  discontented  with  what 
they  are  and  having  no  ideal  of  anything  which 
they  desire  to  become,  as  the  tide  of  a  troubled 
sea  that  cannot  rest." 

No  candid  critic  can  deny  that  these  statements 
are  justified  by  many  incidents  of  American  life. 
The  unscrupulous  making  of  money  and  the  reck- 
less spending  of  it  are  both  familiar  facts  in  the 
United  States,  and  bring  with  them  the  inevitable 
consequences  of  speculation,  vulgarity,  physical 
degeneracy,  and  moral  decay.  Yet  the  American 
character  is  but  half-explained  if  it  seems  of  an 
uncomplicated  and  coarsely  commercial  type. 
Further  acquaintance  with  national  history,  or 
closer  observation  of  the  deeper  movements  of 
national  life,  discloses  another  trait  which  may 
seem  quite  inconsistent  with  this  commercial 
acquisitiveness,  but  which  is,  in  fact,  not  less 
t5^ical  or  persistent.    It  is  a  hereditary  suscep- 

*Schmoller,  "Gnmdriss  der  allgemeinen  Volkswirtschafts- 
lehre,"  1900, 1,  s.  157. 

*  A.  E.  Zimmem,  Sociological  Review,  July,  1912,  p.  212. 


l82     THE   CHRISTIAN   LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

tibility  to  idealism.  By  one  of  the  most  curious 
coincidences  in  human  history,  a  people  which 
was  to  become  so  conspicuously  devoted  to  com- 
mercialism had,  from  the  beginning,  in  their  blood 
a  distinct  strain  of  moral  seriousness.  Of  the  early 
migrations  which  stamped  their  mark  on  national 
character  some,  it  is  true,  were  promoted  by  the 
lust  for  gold ;  but  by  far  the  greater  number  were 
adventures  of  moral  protest  or  of  religious  zeal. 
Across  the  Northern  wastes  marched  the  bearers 
of  the  Cross,  conquering  the  wilderness  for  Christ. 
Pilgrims  and  Puritans  abandoned  for  conscience' 
sake  the  smiling  villages  of  England  and  settled  on 
the  stern  coast  of  an  unknown  continent,  between 
the  savages  and  the  sea.  The  sombre  valleys  of 
the  AUeghenies  rang  with  the  hymns  of  German 
Pietists;  the  Moravians  penetrated  the  untrav- 
elled  waste  which  is  now  Ohio.  Inheritances 
hke  these  are  not  easily  obhterated.  Even  the 
marvellous  expansion  of  commercialism  has  not 
altogether  suppressed  the  American  tendency  to 
convert  each  incident  of  political  experience  into 
a  moral  problem.  Liberty,  justice,  compassion, 
magnanimity,  service,  —  these  words  unlock  the 
meaning  of  many  events  and  touch  with  nobility 
and  romance  many  of  the  most  significant  incidents 
of  American  history.  "It  is  fundamentally  false," 
a  discerning  critic  has  said,  "to  stigmatize  the 
American  as  a  materialist  and  to  deny  his  idealism. 
The  cardinal  point  of  his  whole  activity  is  not 


CHRISTIAN   LIFE  AND  THE   MODERN   STATE      1 83 

greed,  or  the  thought  of  money,  but  the  spirit  of 
self -initiative."  ^ 

Here  is  the  paradox  of  American  politics.  Ac- 
quisitiveness and  generosity,  hardness  and  softness, 
the  spirit  of  commercialism  and  the  faith  of 
idealism,  contend  for  mastery.  The  same  people 
who  have  impressed  observers  as  sharp  traders 
and  keen  politicians  have  surprised  the  world 
by  acts  of  unprecedented  magnanimity  and  ro- 
mantic self-denial.  What  other  nation,  while  re- 
jecting the  principle  of  a  State  Church,  maintains 
through  the  voluntary  gifts  of  its  population  vast 
organizations  for  worship,  as  if  to  testify  that  it 
has,  not  only  territory  to  develop  and  products 
to  sell,  but  a  soul  to  save  ?  What  other  country 
ever  received  an  indemnity  from  a  foreign  Govern- 
ment and  returned  it,  only  to  receive  it  once 
more  in  the  form  of  stipends  for  the  education 
of  youths  sent  to  the  United  States  by  the 
grateful  land?  When  did  another  nation  win 
territory  and  return  it  to  its  occupants,  as  in 
Cuba,  or  hold  it  in  trust,  as  in  the  PhiUppines? 
When  did  ever  another  nation  at  the  end  of  a  war 
like  that  with  Spain  transport  the  defeated  army  to 
their  homes  across  the  sea  ?  When  did  ever  a  great 
Power  pause  with  such  scrupulousness  before  pun- 
ishing a  weaker  neighbor,  like  Mexico,  and  mean- 
time provide  for  her  refugees  friendly  shelter  and 
support?    Or  when  did  any  other  nation,  having 

*  Hugo  Miinsterberg,  "  The  Americans,"  1904,  pp.  236,  239. 


1 84     THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE   EST  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

taken  possession  of  a  strip  of  land  and  at  enormous 
cost  built  a  Canal,  even  propose  to  satisfy  its 
conscience  by  a  voluntary  payment  to  the  former 
owners,  or  to  open  the  Canal  on  equal  terms  to  the 
fleets  of  the  world  ?  Works  of  supererogation  like 
these  indicate  a  more  complex  type  of  character 
than  a  nation  of  shopkeepers  could  produce.  Un- 
der the  hardness  of  American  commerciaHsm  lies 
a  richer  soil,  from  which  there  has  grown  in 
American  politics  and  diplomacy  many  an  unex- 
pected and  even  Utopian  scheme.  The  United 
States,  a  discerning  Englishman  has  said,  is  "a  land 
of,  contrasts."  ^  There  is  a  great  deal  of  every- 
thing, prairie  and  moimtain,  fertility  and  desert, 
irreverence  and  piety,  piracy  and  patriotism. 
Most  fundamental  of  all  is  the  contrast  of  com- 
mercialism with  idealism.  The  crux  of  American 
politics  is  here.  Can  a  nation  which  has  made 
such  conquests  of  nature  learn  to  conquer  itself? 
Gaining  the  world,  will  it  lose  its  own  soul  ?  Is  the 
inherited  ideahsm  which  still  runs  in  the  blood  to 
be  checked  by  the  lethargy  of  national  prosperity 
and  a  hardening  of  the  national  arteries  to  ensue ; 
or  is  it  possible  that  the  very  dimensions  and 
responsibilities  of  modern  commercialism  may 
quicken  a  new  idealism  and  prolong  the  national 
vitality  and  health  ? 

If  political  history  teaches  through  this  illus- 
tration the  general  lesson  that  beneath  the  opera- 

1  J.  F.  Muirhead,  "The  Land  of  Contrasts,"  1898. 


CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND   THE   MODERN  STATE      185 

tions  of  self-interest  and  intrigue  a  moral  purpose 
may  be,  with  many  retardations,  fulfilled;  if 
political  action  is  fickle,  tentative,  and  self-deceiv- 
ing unless  it  be  the  agent  of  the  conscience  and 
heart  of  a  people,  —  then  the  fundamental  duty  of 
citizenship  is  plain.  It  is  the  education  of  political  ] 
idealism.  These  accessions  of  emotion,  or  inherit- 
ances of  conviction,  may  be  foolishly  or  thought- 
lessly applied.  The  voice  of  the  people  may  be 
far  from  an  echo  of  the  voice  of  God.  A  good  i 
conscience  may  not  save  one  from  a  foohsh  vote.  ' 
Designing  politicians  may  even  convert  into  moral 
issues  what  are,  in  fact,  administrative  problems, 
and  may  disguise  their  own  designs  in  phrases  of 
idealism.  No  words  have  been  more  misused  or 
perverted  than  justice,  equality,  and  Uberty.  "  The 
djdng  words  of  Madame  Roland,"  said  Macaulay, 
" '  O  Liberty,  how  many  crimes  are  committed, 
in  thy  name  ! '  were  at  that  time  echoed  by  many 
of  the  most  upright  and  benevolent  of  mankind."  ^ 
The  same  words  are  not  unreasonably  on  many 
lips  to-day.  Liberty  may  commit  crimes  as  easily 
as  it  may  create  character.  Ideahsm,  to  be  justi-  ' 
fied,  must  be  discipHned.  The  education  of  a 
country  for  self-government  should  include,  not 
only  a  training  in  letters  or  trades,  but  the  direction 
of  its  moral  impulses  to  rational  ends.  Each  public 
question  discloses  the  paradox  which  has  been 
described ;   the  superficial  selfishness  and  the  un- 

*  Macaulay,  Essay  on  "Mirabeau,"  "  Works,"  1875,  V,  p.  616. 


1 86     THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE   IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

derlying  ideals ;  and  in  each  a  wise  result  can  be 
attained  by  nothing  less  than  the  sane  and  dis- 
criminating education  of  national  ideahsm. 

The  most  impressive  instance  of  this  demand 
for  the  education  of  idealism  is  provided  by  the 
awful  problem,  now  confronting  every  nation,  of 
substituting  reason  for  war  in  the  settlement  of 
international  disputes.  In  spite  of  Hague  Tri- 
bunals, Peace  Endowments,  International  Bureaus, 
and  the  sympathetic  interest  of  the  vast  majority 
of  citizens  in  all  countries,  expenditure  on  prepara- 
tions for  war  has  mounted  without  check,  until  in 
1913  the  six  great  powers  of  Europe  were,  it  is 
said,  taxing  themselves  for  this  purpose  the  in- 
credible sum  of  more  than  one  and  a  half  thousand 
millions  of  dollars.  This  colossal  and  constantly 
increasing  charge,  which  takes  no  account  of  the 
productive  labor  lost  by  more  than  five  million 
men  serving  with  the  colors,  must,  it  would  seem, 
be  tolerated  for  some  profounder  reason  than  a 
mere  obsession  of  alarm,  or  a  conspiracy  of  ship- 
builders, or  a  craze  of  militarism.  Statesmen  are 
not  likely  to  risk  national  bankruptcy  in  order  to 
quiet  national  hysteria.  The  great  illusion  that 
war  is  commercially  profitable  has  been  supplanted 
in  most  minds  by  the  confession  that  war  is  hell. 
Why  is  it,  then,  that  the  nations,  in  spite  of  many 
protesting  voices,  still  tacitly  consent  to  these  vast 
sacrifices  of  money  and  life  ?  It  is  because,  in  spite 
of  its  terrors,  —  if  not  because  of  them,  —  war  has 


CHRISTIAN   LIFE   AND  THE  MODERN   STATE       187 

seemed  through  all  human  history  the  most  ade- 
quate and  available  expression  of  poUtical  idealism. 
Honor,  patriotism,  sacrifice,  nationaUty,  unity, 
religious  conviction,  —  all  these  high  ideals  have 
found  their  channel  of  utterance  in  the  willingness 
to  fight  and  die.  A  soldier's  courage,  fortitude, 
and  daring  have  seemed  to  offer  to  character  its 
crown.  No  better  title  could  be  found  for  a  loyal 
disciple    of    him   who    said:     "Blessed    are    the  ■ 

peace-makers,"   than   "A  good   soldier  of  Jesus  \ 

Christ."     This    tradition   of   idealism   has   made  \ 

peace  appear  unheroic,  and  war  the  proper  sphere 
for  gallant  men.     Rulers  and  nations  have  chafed  \ 

when  this  opportunity  for  exhibiting  manhood  was  \ 

denied.      They    have    felt    what    Shakespeare's  i 

Falstaff  called,   "The  cankers   of   a   calm   world  ' 

and  a  long  peace"  ;^  or  have  lamented  with  his 
Gloster,  "This  weak,  piping  time  of  peace."  ^ 
The  supreme  test  of  courage,  self -discipline,  and 
loyalty  has  been  found  by  men,  as  by  other  animals, 
in  war. 

Such  a  tradition,  then,  reenforced  by  the  ex- 
perience of  all  the  centuries  since  man  emerged 
from  caves  and  fought  with  stones,  is  not  to  be 
overcome  by  declamations  or  convocations  in  the 
name  of  peace,  or  even  by  computations  of  the 
extravagance  of  war.  "War,"  said  Channing,  in 
one  of  those  many  utterances  in  which  his  courage 

1  "Henry  IV,"  Part  I,  IV,  2. 

2  "Richard  III,"  I,  i. 


1 88     THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE   MODERN  WORLD 

and  his  sanity  met,  "is  not  absolutely  or  in  all 
possible  cases  a  crime.  ...  I  do  not  believe  in 
escaping  the  responsibihty  of  moral  discrimina- 
tion by  flying  to  an  extreme  principle."  ^  Wars  of 
aggression,  jealousy,  or  revenge,  that  is  to  say, 
are  crimes,  not  merely  because  people  are  killed, 
but  because  motives  are  vicious.  Wars  for  self- 
defence,  national  integrity,  or  popular  liberty  may 
be,  as  Channing  adds,  "not  inconsistent  with  the 
spirit  of  Christian  love."  The  blessing  of  Jesus 
was  not  for  those  who  merely  praise  peace  or  even 
pray  for  it,  but  for  those  who,  by  laying  the  founda- 
tions of  international  justice,  equity,  and  honor,  are 
worthy  of  the  name  of  peace-makers. 

How,  then,  is  it  possible  to  perpetuate  the 
ideals  of  courage  and  loyalty  without  the  taint  of 
brutality  and  blood  ?  They  must  be  expressed  in 
new  forms  of  heroism,  and  applied  to  ventures  of 
life  and  death  not  less  splendid,  and  more  honorable. 
"Much  remains,"  wrote  Milton  to  Cromwell, 

"To  conquer  still ;  peace  hath  her  victories 
No  less  renown'd  than  war ;  new  foes  arise 
Threatening  to  bind  our  souls  with  secular  chains. 
Help  us  to  save  free  conscience  from  the  paw 
Of  hireling  wolves,  whose  gospel  is  their  maw."  * 

No  characteristic  of  the  modem  world  is  more 
significant  than  its  increasing  recognition  of  these 
types  of  heroism  which  may  supplant  or  satisfy 

i  W.  E.  Channing,  "Memoirs,"  1851,  III,  p.  20. 
*  Sonnet  XVI,  "To  the  Lord  General  Cromwell." 


CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  MODERN  STATE      1 89 

the  martial  instinct.  In  a  brilliant  "essay  by  Will- 
iam James  ^  on  "Moral  Equivalents  for  War,"  he 
urges  an  organized  movement  to  direct  militarism 
to  worthier  ends.  War,  he  says,  has  always 
represented  the  "strong  life."  "Militarism  is 
the  great  preserver  of  our  ideals  of  hardihood." 
"The  horror  makes  the  thrill."  He  proposes, 
therefore,  a  Utopian  equivalent,  —  "  the  conscrip- 
tion of  the  whole  youthful  population"  in  an  army 
of  social  service  where  "intrepidity,  contempt  of 
softness,  and  obedience  to  command"  may  "re- 
main the  rock  on  which  States  are  built." 

But  is  it,  one  may  ask,  necessary  to  wait  for  this 
universal  and  impracticable  conscription  to  enforce 
new  types  of  heroism  ?  Do  they  not,  in  fact,  already 
exist  and  offer  their  summons  to  gallant  youth? 
Is  not "  civic  passion  "  even  now  urging  many  young 
men  and  women  into  the  ranks  of  social  service, 
and  "contempt  of  softness"  creating  a  new  knight- 
hood of  industry?  A  soldier  runs  occasional  risk 
at  an  outpost,  but  for  most  of  his  days  he  is  drilling, 
waiting,  and  polishing  his  arms,  while  many  a 
wage-earner  risks  his  life  any  hour  on  the  end  of  a 
cantilever,  or  the  top  of  a  skyscraper,  or  at  the 
throttle  of  an  engine,  or  in  the  depths  of  a  mine. 
It  is  exciting  to  destroy  life  at  the  risk  of  one's  f\ 
own ;  but  it  is  not  less  exhilarating,  and  may  in- 
volve much  greater  danger,  to  rescue  life  at  the  j 
risk  of  one's  own.  It  is  brave  to  be  a  soldier ;  but 
^  "Memoirs  and  Studies,"  191 1,  p.  267  fif. 


IQO     THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

it  may  be  much  braver  to  be  a  saviour.  It  takes 
courage  to  conquer  savages  with  guns;  but  it 
takes  much  more  courage  to  conquer  savages 
with  the  sword  of  the  spirit.  It  is  heroic  to  lead 
a  charge  in  battle ;  but  it  is  much  more  heroic  to 
let  a  mosquito  settle  on  one's  hand  and  to  die  of 
yellow  fever,  that  a  world  may  be  dehvered  from 
a  scourge  more  terrible  than  war.  No  soldierly 
daring  was  ever  greater  than  many  a  modern  ex- 
ploit of  medical  research  or  missionary  zeal.  "  To 
kill  one's  fellow-creatures,"  wrote  Erasmus  to  the 
Bishop  of  Trent  in  1530,  "  needs  no  great  genius, 
but  to  cabn  a  tempest  by  prudence  and  judgment 
is  a  worthy  achievement."  "  Away  then,"  said 
Channing,  after  rejecting  the  principle  of  peace  at 
any  price,  "  with  the  argument  that  war  is  needed 
as  a  nursery  of  patriotism!  The  school  of  the 
peaceful  Redeemer  is  infinitely  more  adapted  to 
teach  the  nobler  as  well  as  the  milder  virtues 
which  adorn  humanity." 

When  Samuel  Gridley  Howe,  the  principal  figure 
in  American  philanthropy,  —  a  man  who,  as  his 
biographer  said,  "combined  the  qualities  of  Sir 
Galahad  and  the  Good  Samaritan,"  —  turned  from 
fighting  for  Greek  independence  to  his  crusade  in 
defence  of  the  blind  and  the  feeble-minded,  it  was 
not  a  suppression  of  his  martial  instincts,  but  a 
conversion  of  them.  He  was  equally  a  soldier 
when  he  fought  against  Turks  and  when  he  fought 
against  Legislatures,  or  released  from  its  fleshly 


CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  MODERN   STATE      191 

prison  the  soul  of  Laura  Bridgman.  He  had 
found,  not  a  substitute  for  war,  but  a  new  way  of 
warfare,  not  less  romantic  or  heroic  than  at  Misso- 
longhi  or  Athens.  The  titles  given  him  by  con- 
temporary observers  were  military  titles,  —  "The 
Happy  Warrior";  "  The  ChevaUer  "  ;  "The  Good 
Knight";  and  when  Whittier  wrote  of  him  it 
was  as  "The  Hero":  — 

"Knight  of  a  better  era 
Without  reproach  or  fear ! 
Said  I  not  well  that  Bayards 
And  Sidneys  still  are  here  ?" 

Here,  then,  and  in  many  other  critical  problems  i 
of  political  action,  is  indicated  the  place  of  the' 
Christian  life  in  the  modem  State.  It  is  not  a 
political  agent  or  a  legislative  machine.  An 
affiliation  of  Church  with  State  is  more  likely  to 
materialize  the  Church  than  to  spiritualize  the 
State.  A  State  Church  is  more  inclined  to  be  a 
bulwark  of  conservatism  than  a  quickener  of  the 
nation's  conscience  or  a  guardian  of  spiritual 
liberty.  A  governmental  agency  is  more  disposed 
to  conform  than  to  reform.  The  disciple  of  Jesus 
Christ  may  still  wisely  leave  to  the  Caesars  of  the 
modem  world  the  things  which  are  theirs,  and 
claim  for  the  things  of  God  the  rights  of  a  free 
Church  in  a  free  State.  The  Christian  Church, 
however,  has  a  much  more  fundamental  part  in 
political  action.  It  is,  for  the  Western  world  at 
least,  the  most  effective  agent  in  the  education 


192     THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

of  idealism.  Its  business  is  to  detect  in  each  public 
issue,  beneath  the  angry  voices  of  partisanship,  the 
still  small  voice  of  the  national  conscience,  and  to 
lift  that  subconscious  and  undefined  emotion  into 
rational  and  articulate  expression,  —  in  short,  to 
apply  to  politics  the  Law  of  Love,  and  to  diplomacy 
the  Golden  Rule.  This  is  not,  as  many  politicians 
imagine,  mere  sentimentaHsm ;  it  is,  on  the  contrary, 
poUtical  wisdom.  To  hold  before  a  community 
or  a  nation  the  ancient  standards,  "Better  is  a 
little  with  righteousness  than  great  revenues  with- 
out right,"  "Where  there  is  no  vision  the  people 
perish,"  is  —  in  Emerson's  phrase  —  to  deal,  not 
with  glittering  generaUties,  but  with  blazing  ubiq- 
uities. These  are  the  decisions  which  determine 
the  destinies  of  nations.  Precisely  as  a  railway 
corporation  posts  on  every  wall  the  regulation, 
"Safety  first!"  so  the  Christian  Church  is  called 
to  preach,  "Seek  first  the  Kingdom  of  God  and 
His  righteousness." 

It  is  not  enough,  then,  to  say  that  the  Chris- 
tian life  may  be  practicable  in  a  modern  State, 
for  the  ideals  which  it  cherishes  are,  in  fact,  the 
foundations  of  pohtical  stability.  Without  the 
,  vision  of  an  ideal  State,  which  Christians  call 
the  Kingdom  of  God,  no  modem  State,  and 
least  of  all  a  commercial  democracy,  can  survive. 
"Democracy  is  possible,"  Woodrow  Wilson,  as 
Professor  of  Government,  has  said,^  "only  among 

1  "An  Old  Master  and  Other  Essays,"  p.  117 ;  cited  by  W.  W. 
Willoughby,  "The  Nature  of  the  State,"  1907,  p.  424. 


CHRISTIAN  LITE  AND  THE  MODERN  STATE      I93 

peoples  of  the  highest  and  steadiest  political  habit. 
It  is  the  heritage  of  races  purged  alike  of  hasty 
barbaric  passion  and  of  patient  servility  to  rulers, 
and  schooled  in  temperate  common  counsel.  It 
is  an  institution  of  political  noonday,  not  of  the 
half-light  of  political  dawn."  On  no  other  terms 
can  a  country  like  the  United  States  hope  to  be 
saved  from  a  progressive  paralysis  of  its  vitality 
and  efficiency.  A  renaissance  of  national  ideaUsm  i 
alone  can  solve  the  paradox  of  politics.  The 
whole  creation  of  Government  travaileth  in  pain 
until  now,  waiting  for  the  manifestation  of  the 
Christian  life  in  the  modem  State. ^ 

^  These  pages  were  already  in  print  when  there  descended  upon 
an  astonished  world  the  terrific  storm  of  European  war,  which 
seems  to  lay  in  ruins  the  faith  of  the  idealist  and  to  leave  the 
principles  of  Christian  Ethics  like  a  devastated  city  in  an  army's 
track.  Yet,  as  the  causes  of  this  carnage  are  more  clearly  dis- 
cerned it  becomes  obvious  that  instead  of  refuting  these  princi- 
ples they  testify  on  the  most  tremendous  scale  to  their  validity 
and  permanence.  This  chaos  of  the  nations,  it  already  appears, 
is  not  a  consequence  of  rational  decisions  or  immediate  contro- 
versies, but  the  awful  Nemesis  which  follows  a  long  series  of  moral 
wrongs ;  the  tragic  corollary  of  captured  provinces,  broken  trea- 
ties, territorial  aggrandizement,  and  the  duplicity  of  secret 
diplomacy.  Never  in  himian  history  was  there  such  a  fulfilment 
of  the  warning  of  Moses  to  the  people  of  Israel :  "  Behold,  you 
have  sinned  against  the  Lord ;  and  be  sure  your  sin  will  find  you 
out."  Each  act  of  arrogance  or  oppression  committed  by  any 
nation,  —  and  which  of  them  is  guiltless  ?  —  each  tortuous  negotia- 
tion and  evaded  obligation,  now  meets  its  delayed  retribution. 
The  cynical  divorce  of  politics  from  morality  and  of  statesman- 
ship from  idealism  which  the  history  of  Europe  records  could 
have  no  other  consequence  than  this  apparently  unprovoked  and 
o 


194     THE   CHRISTIAN   LIFE   IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

uninterpretable  war.  And,  on  the  other  hand,  if  the  United 
States  is  to  have  any  share  in  the  final  restoration  of  peace,  it 
will  be  because  no  question  can  be  raised  of  its  absolute  good 
faith,  its  abnegation  —  so  lately  and  impressively  proved  —  of  all 
desire  for  further  territory,  its  abandonment  of  all  diplomatic 
strategy,  and  the  confidence  of  the  world  in  its  fundamental 
idealism.  The  issue  of  this  apparent  reversion  to  barbarism  can 
be  nothing  less  than  the  restriction  of  militarism,  the  substitution 
of  reason  for  force  in  international  disputes,  and  the  application 
of  the  fighting  instinct  to  constructive  ends- 
September  I,  1914. 


VII 

THE   CHRISTIAN   LIFE  AND  THE   CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

There  remains  for  consideration  one  further 
question  which  in  its  first  statement  may  seem 
superfluous,  if  not  ironical.  Is  the  Christian  life 
practicable  in  the  Christian  Church?  Are  the 
conditions  of  organized  Christianity,  its  standards 
of  fellowship  and  its  effect  on  character,  such  as 
to  give  to  the  Christian  life  reenforcement  and 
momentum ;  or  are  the  forces  of  commercialism, 
sectarianism,  bigotry,  and  insincerity  so  formidable 
in  the  Christian  Church  as  to  block  the  free  course 
of  the  Christian  life  and  turn  its  flow  toward  other 
channels  ?  The  Church  exists,  it  may  be  assumed,  [  } 
to  perpetuate  and  transmit  the  Power  and  Life]  | 
derived  from  Jesus  Christ.  Has  it  fulfilled  this 
sacred  task?  Has  it  subordinated  all  other  am- 
bitions and  desires?  Does  it  now  offer  an  unob- 
structed course  for  the  water  of  Life?  Is  it  a 
Power-house  of  effective  service  ? 

These  questions  may  appear  to  some  minds  al- 
most insolent  in  their  implications.  Has  not  the 
Christian  Church,  it  may  be  answered,  throughout 
all  its  history,  comforted  the  weak,  consoled  the 

I9S 


196     THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE   IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

sad,  preached  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  and  main- 
tained unprecedented  agencies  of  benevolence  and 
compassion  ?  Is  not  the  Christian  life,  with  its 
self-denial,  its  sacrifices,  and  its  tranquillity,  the 
product  of  this  association  and  inheritance  ?  Shall 
not  the  tree  be  known  by  its  fruits,  the  nature  of 
the  Christian  Church  by  the  beauty  of  the  Christian 
character  ?  All  this,  and  much  more,  may  be  justly 
affirmed.  Yet  it  is  not  less  obvious  that  it  has 
often  been  hard  for  the  Christian  hfe  to  flourish  in 
this  soil.  What  incredible  persecutions,  what 
mistaken  asceticism,  what  dehumanized  saintship, 
what  demoralizing  charity  the  history  of  the 
Church  records,  and  what  lingering  superstitions, 
arrogant  assumptions,  and  mercenary  aims  still 
vitiate  or  neutralize  its  purpose  !  The  presumptu- 
ousness  of  the  ecclesiastic,  the  competitive  zeal 
of  the  sectarian,  and  —  more  than  all  —  the  sup- 
pression of  a  spiritual  democracy  by  the  domina- 
tion of  wealth,  —  all  these  familiar  characteristics 
of  modern  Christianity  have  made  many  a 
thoughtful  observer  turn  away  in  despair  or  dis- 
gust, and  conclude  that  the  Christian  life  is  im- 
practicable in  the  Christian  Church.  No  attack 
on  the  Christian  religion  from  without  can 
compare  in  destructive  effect  with  this  betrayal 
of  it  from  within.  Intolerance  and  spiritual 
pride  are  more  threatening  than  agnosticism  and 
materialism.  Nothing  hinders  the  expansion  of 
the    Church    among    non-Christian    nations    so 


CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH    I97 

seriously  as  the  un-Christian  conduct  of  Chris- 
tians. The  work  of  foreign  missions  is  blocked  by 
denominational  rivalries  and  provincial  bigotry 
more  than  by  superstitions  and  barbarism.  No 
allies  of  scepticism  or  atheism  are  so  effective  as 
the  commercialized  Christian  and  the  church-going 
scamp.  "Woe  unto  you,"  said  Jesus,  to  the 
Churchmen  of  his  day,  "Scribes  and  Pharisees, 
hypocrites,  for  ye  devour  widows'  houses  and  for 
a  pretence  make  long  prayers.  .  .  .  Woe  unto  you, 
whited  sepulchres  .  .  .  which  outwardly  appear 
righteous  unto  men  but  within  are  full  of  hypocrisy 
and  iniquity."  Many  a  critic  of  Christianity  re- 
peats the  same  indictment  to-day.  The  hypocrisy 
which  permits  in  the  same  person  prayer  and 
plunder,  the  external  decorum  which  tolerates  ex- 
tortion within,  the  blind  guides  who  strain  out  the 
gnat  of  heresy  and  swallow  the  camel  of  world- 
liness,  still  drive  from  the  doors  of  the  Christian 
Church  many  a  seeker  for  consistency  of  character. 
The  Christian  life,  even  if  it  be  practicable  in  the 
Christian  Church,  is  not  an  inevitable  or  an  un- 
obstructed growth. 

There  are  many  reasons  for  this  incomplete  ful- 
filment of  the  mission  of  the  Church.  Undis- 
ciplined zeal  may  generate  persecution,  ignorant 
piety  may  promote  animosity ;  a  great  institution 
is  always  likely  to  become  an  inorganic  form 
rather  than  a  quickening  soul,  a  historical  monu- 
ment rather   than   a  propelling  force.    All   this 


198     THE   CHRISTIAN  LITE   EN  THE   MODERN  WORLD 

may  happen  because  the  Church  has  to  take  human 
nature  as  it  is.  Much  may  be  pardoned  to  small 
minds  using  as  their  instrument  a  great  ideal. 
There  is,  however,  one  general  tendency  which 
the  history  of  the  Christian  Church  illustrates, 
and  which  has  enormously  increased  this  malad- 
justment with  the  Christian  life.  It  is  what  may 
be  called  the  intellectualizing  of  discipleship,  the 
defining  of  fellowship  in  terms  of  intellectual  con- 
sent rather  than  in  terms  of  a  moral  pledge. 

When  one  recalls  the  symbols  and  confessions  of 
the  Church  he  is  struck  by  a  curious  paradox.  The 
general,  even  if  tacit,  agreement  of  unsophisticated 
people  has  always  accepted  the  Christian  life  as 
the  test  of  the  Christian  religion.  However  divided 
in  opinion  Christians  may  have  been,  however 
ruthlessly  their  creeds  have  excluded  the  uncon- 
verted from  fellowship  or  condemned  the  un- 
baptized  to  perdition,  whenever  and  wherever  the 
Christian  life,  with  its  characteristic  marks  of 
sacrifice,  service,  and  serenity,  has  been  manifest, 
controversy  has  been  silenced,  divisive  doctrines 
have  been  forgotten,  and  the  Master's  words 
remembered:  "Not  every  one  that  saith  imto 
me.  Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of 
heaven ;  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  my  Father 
which  is  in  heaven."  In  the  presence  of  such 
souls  the  Church  repeats  the  Pauline  teaching: 
"As  many  as  are  led  by  the  spirit  of  God,  they 
axe  the  sons  of  God,"  and  joins  in  the  confession 


CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE   CTDRISTIAN   CHURCH     1 99 

of  Ignatius:    "Where  Jesus  may  be,  there  is  the  f  [ 
universal  Church."  * 

"From  scheme  and  creed  the  light  goes  out. 
The  saintly  fact  survives ; 
The  blessed  Master  none  can  doubt, 
Revealed  in  holy  Uves." 

This  desire  for  fellowship  in  the  spirit  is,  however, 
at  once  confronted  by  the  fact  that  in  the  formal 
creeds  and  confessions  of  the  Christian  Church  no 
such  primacy  has  been  unqualifiedly  given  to  the 
Christian  life.  On  the  contrary,  the  terms  of 
discipleship  have  been  frankly  inteUectualized,  so 
that  consent  to  dogma  rather  than  consecration 
of  character  has  been  the  test  of  fellowship.  To 
say  this  is  neither  to  deny  nor  to  depreciate  the 
creeds  of  the  Church.  Every  thoughtful  man  has 
a  creed,  and  to  denounce  the  creeds  is  simply  to 
announce  one's  own  creed.  The  creeds  of  Christian 
commmiions,  however,  divergent  and  conflicting 
as  they  may  be  in  their  propositions  or  articles, 
are  in  one  respect  singularly  uniform  in  type. 
With  scarcely  an  exception  they  intellectualize 
discipleship,  assume  the  primary  obUgation  of 
doctrinal  agreement,  and  imply  that  the  Christian 
religion  is  a  dogma  rather  than  a  hfe. 

The  Apostles'  Creed,  for  example,  of  which  most 
later  Confessions  are  elaborations,  while  it  dwells 
with  solemn  affirmation  on  the  miraculous  aspects  of 

»  "Epistle  to  the  Smymaeans,"  tr.  Lightfoot,  §  8 ;  d.  Lightfoot's 
note  on  the  word  "CathoUc,"  "  Apost.  Fathers,"  II,  p.  320. 


200     THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE    MODERN  WORLD 

the  birth  and  death  of  Jesus  Christ,  makes  no  allu- 
sion whatever  to  the  hfe  and  teaching  which  lie 
between.  He  was  "born  of  the  Virgin  Mary  .  .  . 
suffered  under  Pontius  Pilate,  was  crucified,  dead, 
and  buried."  "  It  leaps,"  a  sympathetic  expositor 
of  this  creed  has  lately  said,  '"  from  the  thought 
of  his  birth  as  a  helpless  infant  to  the  thought  of 
his  suffering  as  a  helpless  victim.  .  .  Nothing  is 
said  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  or  of  our  social  ob- 
Ugations  and  responsibilities;  not  a  word  of  our 
duty  to  our  equals  or  to  those  beneath  us  in  privi- 
lege and  opportunity ;  not  a  word  of  the  brother- 
hood of  man,  except  what  seems  the  pallid  and 
narrow  substitute  of  the  commimion  of  saints."  * 
As  a  consequence  of  these  omissions,  therefore, 
one  might  repeat  with  entire  conviction  all  its 
Christological  articles  without  pledging  himself 
at  all  to  a  consistently  Christian  life.  Consent  to 
these  majestic  propositions  would  not  commit  one 
even  to  honesty,  chastity,  or  self-sacrifice,  or  make 
one  ready  for  the  Master's  welcome:  ''Well  done, 
good  and  faithful  servant.  Inasmuch  as  ye  have 
done  it  imto  one  of  the  least  of  these  my  brethren, 
ye  have  done  it  unto  me." 

The  Nicene  Creed  expands  the  same  series  of 
articles,  with  a  more  exphcit  definition  of  the 
Deity  of  Christ.  The  Athanasian  Creed  prefaces 
its  declarations  with  the  solemn  warning,  "Who- 

1 G.  A.  J.  Ross,  "  The  God  We  Trust.  Studies  in  the  Devo- 
tional Use  of  the  Apostles'  Creed,"  1913,  p.  201. 


CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH     20I 

soever  will  be  saved,  before  all  things  it  is  necessary 
that  he  hold  the  Catholic  Faith,  which  Faith  ex- 
cept every  one  do  keep  whole  and  undefiled,  without 
doubt  he  shall  perish  everlastingly."  The  Council 
of  Trent  confirms  the  Nicene  Creed  as  "that  prin- 
ciple wherein  all  who  profess  the  faith  of  Christ 
necessarily  agree."  The  Augsburg  Confession, 
after  defining  the  nature  of  God,  the  Son  of  God, 
the  Church  and  the  Sacraments,  afl&rms  "that 
those  things  only  have  been  enumerated  which  it 
seemed  necessary  to  say."  The  Thirty-nine  Ar- 
ticles of  the  Church  of  England  restate  the  creeds, 
enumerate  the  canonical  Scriptures,  describe  the 
nature  of  sin,  predestination,  and  salvation ;  and 
conclude  that  "Holy  Scripture  doth  set  out  unto 
us  only  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  whereby  men  must 
be  saved."  The  Westminster  Confession  an- 
nounces "that  it  pleased  the  Lord  at  sundry  times 
...  to  reveal  himself  .  .  .  and  afterwards  .  .  . 
to  commit  the  same  wholly  unto  writing,  .  .  .  those 
former  ways  of  God's  revealing  his  will  unto  his 
people  being  now  ceased." 

It  is  not  necessary  for  the  present  purpose  to 
enter  into  any  discussion  or  express  any  doubt  con- 
cerning the  validity  or  authority  of  these  venerable 
symbols.  They  have  been  wrought  into  the  wor- 
ship of  the  Church,  steadying  its  orthodoxy,  en- 
riching its  ritual,  and  lifting  the  minds  of  worship- 
pers to  great  conceptions  of  the  ways  of  God  with 
man.    They  should  be  approached  with  reverence 


202     THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

as  great  monuments  of  ancient  thought.  What  is 
immediately  obvious  in  them  all,  however,  is  their 
common  emphasis.  They  are  declarations  of 
dogma,  not  directions  for  Ufe.  They  codify  Chris- 
tian opinion  rather  than  modify  Christian  char- 
acter. They  invite  an  intellectual  confession  rather 
than  a  moral  pledge.  They  make  affirmations 
concerning  which  "all  who  profess  the  name  of 
Christ  necessarily  agree,"  or  which  contain  "those 
things  which  are  necessary  to  say."  Yet,  all  the 
while,  the  real  tests  of  Christian  discipleship  are  of 
quite  another  character,  and  are  daily  met  by 
many  Kves  to  whom  the  affirmations  of  the  creeds 
may  be  either  a  riddle  or  a  stumbling-block. 
One  might  concur  in  the  entire  Nicene  theology, 
accept  the  authority  of  Scripture,  and  maintain 
the  efficacy  of  the  sacraments,  and  yet  be  far  from 
a  follower  of  Jesus  Christ ;  and,  on  the  other  hand, 
one  might  be  indifferent  to  all  formal  creeds,  wel- 
come the  higher  criticism  of  Scripture,  and  deny 
the  importance  of  sacraments,  and  yet  so  com- 
pletely yield  himself  to  the  spirit  of  Christ  as  to 
say  with  Paul,  "I  live,  yet  not  I,  but  Christ 
liveth  in  me,"  or  with  George  Fox,  "These 
things  I  did  not  see  by  the  help  of  man  .  .  . 
but  I  saw  them  by  the  light  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ."  1 

Here  is  the  inevitable  paradox  of  an  intellectu- 
alized  discipleship.     When  a  distinguished  prelate 
^  Journal,  I,  p.  loi. 


CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH     203 

defines  the  Church  as  "The  great  company  of  the 
baptized,"  he  is  confronted  by  the  obvious  fact  that 
there  are  many  baptized  sinners  and  many  unbap- 
tized  saints.  In  short,  these  confessions,  which  ac- 
cording to  the  Athanasian  Creed  sum  up  the  Catholic  \ 
faith,  are  not  confessions  of  faith,  but  deposits  of  I 
opinion.  Each  is  a  record  of  ancient  controversies 
—  with  Gnosticism,  it  may  be,  or  Sabellianism,  or 
Arianism  —  which  once  burned  with  volcanic  fury, 
but  are  now  little  more  than  extinct  craters.  Chris- 
tian faith  is,  on  the  other  hand,  a  spiritual  condition 
of  loyalty  and  trust,  of  Power  and  Life,  which  a  creed 
may  confirm,  but  which  a  creed  cannot  create.  One 
may  believe  in  the  forgiveness  of  sins  as  a  theological 
proposition  without  being  thereby  constrained  to 
penitence  for  his  own  sins.  One  may  believe  in 
the  resurrection  of  the  body  as  a  miracle  without 
presenting  his  own  body  as  a  living  sacrifice.  The 
virgin-birth  of  Christ,  as  the  greatest  of  modem 
theologians  said  a  century  ago,  is  in  itself  no  ab- 
solute warrant  of  the  Divine  life  of  Christ.  The 
work  of  Christ  was  not  perfected  in  his  suffering, 
but  in  his  resignation  to  that  suffering.  ^  The  in- 
carnation of  God  in  Christ  is  a  historical  proposi- 
tion; the  incarnation  of  Christ  in  the  life  of  a 
Christian  is  a  spiritual  experience.  The  prayer  of 
the  Apostle  is  not  that  Christ  may  be  defined  in 
our  minds,  but  that  Christ  "may  dwell  in  your 

^  Schleiermacher,  "Christliche  Glaube,"  ed.  1861,  II,  ss.  67, 
xox. 


204     THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

hearts  by  faith" ;  not  that  Christ  may  be  confessed 
in  a  creed,  but  that  Christ  may  be  "in  you,  the  hope 
of  glory." 

A  conspicuous  instance  of  this  intellectualiz- 
ing  of  Christianity  is  provided  by  the  proposal 
of  one  American  Communion  for  a  "World  Con- 
ference on  Faith  and  Order,"  to  promote  the  move- 
ment to  Christian  Unity.  Comprehensive  plans  are 
made  for  this  great  consummation  and  to  each  pre- 
liminary document  is  prefixed  the  sublime  prayer 
of  Jesus  Christ,  "That  they  may  all  be  one; 
as  Thou,  Father,  art  in  me  and  I  in  Thee,  that  they 
also  may  be  one  in  us."  When,  however,  one  turns 
to  the  conditions  of  unity  proposed,  it  appears 
that  they  are  to  be  neither  ethical  nor  religious, 
neither  of  obedience  to  Christ's  commands  nor  of 
communion  with  his  spirit,  but  dogmatic,  confes- 
sional, intellectualized.  To  this  enterprise  for 
"the  fulfilment  of  our  Lord's  prayer  that  all  his 
\  disciples  may  be  one"  are  invited  "all  Christian 
\  communions  throughout  the  world  which  confess 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  as  GK)d  and  Saviour."  It  is 
not  necessary  to  dwell  on  the  fact  that  a  unity 
based  on  this  bald  assertion  of  the  identity  of 
Jesus  with  the  Eternal  God,  and  omitting  all  allu- 
sion to  his  human  hfe,  would  be  a  curious  reproduc- 
tion of  the  ancient  Monophysite  heresy,  which  the 
early  Church  was  prompt  to  deny,  and  would 
at  once  be  confronted  by  the  teaching  of  Paul: 
"There  is  one  God,  and  one  mediator  between  God 


CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH     205 

and  men,  the  man  Christ  Jesus,"  and  by  the  warning 
of  St.  Augustine :  **If  he  were  not  man,  man  would 
not  be  redeemed."  ^  A  more  elementary  considera- 
tion is  to  be  drawn  from  the  obvious  fact  that  such 
a  programme  of  unity  would  fail  to  cover,  either 
by  inclusion  or  by  exclusion,  those  whom  Jesus 
Christ  welcomed  as  his  disciples.  The  confession 
that  Christ  was  God  is  no  conclusive  evidence 
that  he  who  makes  it  will  follow  Christ.  "The 
devils  also  beHeve  and  tremble."  "Not  every  one 
that  saith  unto  me.  Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter  into 
the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  but  he  that  doeth  the  will 
of  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven."  The  exclusions 
of  the  Apostohc  Church  were  ethical :  "If  any  man 
have  not  the  spirit  of  Christ,  he  is  none  of  his" ; 
its  inclusions  were  spiritual :  "As  many  as  are  led 
by  the  spirit  of  God  they  are  the  sons  of  God." 
This  generous  and  fraternal  effort  to  gain  an 
end  for  which  all  Christians  pray  is,  therefore, 
blocked  at  its  very  outset  by  its  preliminary  in- 
tellectuaHsm.  It  must  exclude  many  who  are 
undeniably  Christians  and  include  some  who  are 
practically  heathen.  The  difficulty  is  not  in  the 
Christology  but  in  the  substitution  of  Christology  . 
for  life.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  if  the  only  basis  ) 
of  Christian  unity  were  the  confession  that  Christ 
is  God,  then  the  prayer  which  makes  the  text  of 
this  whole  enterprise,  that  all  his  disciples  might  be 

*  "  Sed  si  ille  non  esset  homo  non  liberaretur  homo."    Super 
fsalmos.    Ps.  63. 


\ 


206     THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

one,  as  he  and  the  Father  are  one,  could  never 
be  fulfilled. 

These  reflections,  it  must  be  repeated,  do  not 
raise  the  question  of  the  veracity  or  authority  of 
the  Christian  creeds.  What  is  immediately  evi- 
dent, however,  is  that  they  speak  another  language, 
strike  another  note,  are  pitched  in  another  key, 
from  those  of  obedience,  loyalty,  and  discipleship. 
They  may  be  demonstrably  true  and  yet  ethically 
subordinate.  They  may  establish  institutional 
Christianity  without  appreciably  fortifying  personal 
religion.  "The  weakness  of  our  position,"  an  An- 
glican lecturer  has  frankly  said,  "does  not  lie  in  the 
inadequacy  of  our  definitions,  but  in  the  deadly  fal- 
/  lacy  of  putting  definition  first  and  character  sec- 
I  ond."  ^  Jesus  says,  "If  any  man  will  do  His  will, 
he  shall  know  of  the  doctrine"  ;^  the  creeds  reverse 
this  chronology  of  Christian  experience  and  make 
the  knowledge  of  doctrine  antecedent  to  the  doing 
of  the  will.  Jesus  says,  "Whosoever  shall  do  the 
will  of  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven,  the  same  is 
my  brother  and  sister  and  mother";  but  many 
sectarian  or  ecclesiastical  controversies  erect  bar- 
riers between  those  who  are  doing  the  will  of  the 
Father,  as  though  they  were  neither  brothers 
nor  sisters,  but  enemies  of  the  faith.    A  represen- 

^Peile,  "The  Reproach  of  the  Gospels,"  Bampton  Lectures, 
1907,  p.  21. 

*"  If  any  one  is  willing  to  do  His  will,  he  shall  know  about  the 
teaching."     (Weymouth.) 


CHRISTIAN  LEFE  AND  THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH     207 

tative  of  one  important  Communion  has  lately 
declined  the  suggestion  of  ecclesiastical  fraternalism 
with  the  words:  "Our  system  is  nothing  if  not 
dogmatic.  .  .  .  Ours  is  a  system  based  on  the 
sacramental  basis."  ^ 

To  explore  the  causes  of  this  paradox  would  lead 
one  far  into  Christian  and  even  into  pre-Christian 
history,  but  its  consequences  may  be  easily  ob- 
served. To  some  minds  it  is  sufficient  that  the 
mysterious  and  remote  events  described  in  the 
creeds  are  ratified  by  the  testimony  of  a  Divinely 
directed  and  infalUble  Church,  which  assures  the 
permanence  of  dogma  and  within  a  prescribed  area 
of  truth  fosters  the  practice  of  the  Christian  Ufe. 
Other  minds  have  imdertaken  to  translate  these 
archaic  phrases  into  what  seem  their  modern  equiv- 
alents. "Begotten  of  the  Father  before  all 
worlds"  means  that  "the  purposes  Christ  revealed 
always  existed."  "Incarnate  by  the  Holy  Ghost 
of  the  Virgin  Mary"  means  that  "man  bom  of 
woman  may  be  Divine."  "Descended  into  hell" 
is  merely  "a  matter  of  controverting  those  who 
declared  Christ  was  taken  from  the  cross  before 
he  died."  ^  Or  again,  as  proposed  by  another  apolo- 
gist, "  Conceived  by  the  Holy  Ghost"  means  "  Con- 
ceived in  the  mind  of  God  " ;  "Bom  of  the  Virgin 
Mary,"  "confirms  the  fact  that  Jesus  came  forth 
not  by  chance  or  unaccountably^^ ;   "The  Resurrec- 

.  ^  Constructive  Review,  October,  1913,  p.  780. 
»  Churchill,  "The  Inside  of  the  Cup,"  1913,  p.  288  ff. 


2o8     THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE   IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

tion  of  the  body"  {resurrectio  carnis)  means  that 
"to  every  soul  set  free  by  death  God  gives  a  body 
as  it  hath  pleased  Him."  ^ 

Neither  of  these  ways  of  justification,  however,  is 
likely  to  commend  the  Christian  Church  to  un- 
sophisticated modern  minds.  Esoteric  ecclesiasti- 
cism  lies  altogether  outside  the  horizon  of  free  in- 
quiry ;  and  the  accommodation  of  ancient  symbols 
to  modern  thought  seems  more  ingenious  than 
convincing.  It  is  equally  hopeless  to  propose  that 
theological  research  shall  be  delegated  to  a  priestly 
caste,  and  to  anticipate  that  articles  of  faith  will 
long  be  solemnly  repeated  after  their  obvious 
meaning  has  been  rejected.  Among  the  first 
principles  of  the  scientific  habit  of  mind  are  the 
scrupulous  use  of  words  and  rigid  accuracy  in 
definition.  When,  therefore,  this  habit  of  mind  is 
met  by  such  a  controversy  as  is  now  agitating  the 
Church  of  England,  and  which  the  letters  of  the 
Bishop  of  Oxford  and  the  Lady  Margaret  Professor 
illustrate,^  a  perplexing  division  of  sympathy 
is  likely  to  ensue.  On  the  one  hand  the  modern 
mind  regrets  with  Professor  Sanday  that  the  con- 
troversy "may  make  the  ministry  of  the  Church  of 
England  impossible  for  many  thinking  and  in- 
structed men"  ;  but  on  the  other  hand  it  feels  the 
force  of  Bishop  Gore's  contention  that  when  "one 

» Ross,  op.  cit.  pp.  67,  73,  193. 

»  C.  Gore,  "The  Basis  of  Anglican  Fellowship,"  etc.,  1914; 
W.  Sanday,  "  Bishop  Gore's  Challenge  to  Criticism,"  etc.,  1914. 


CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH     209 

does  not  believe  that  we  have  adequate  grounds 
for  asserting  that  our  Lord  was  in  very  fact  bom 
of  a  Virgin,  and  rose  again  the  third  day  from  the 
dead,  he  cannot  legitimately,  or  with  due  regard 
to  public  sincerity,  retain  his  position  as  an  officer 
in  a  Church  which  requires  of  its  officers  the 
constant  reiteration  of  the  creeds."  The  dilemma 
thus  created  is  inevitable.  It  is  the  corollary  of 
the  assumption  that  consent  to  these  propositions 
is  the  basis  of  Christian  discipleship.  No  Church 
can  hope  to  possess  at  the  same  time  flexibility 
and  fixity,  free  inquiry  and  unchanging  standards, 
the  moral  right  to  criticism  and  the  moral  obligation 
of  conformity.  The  difficulty  in  an  intellectuaHzed 
Christianity  is  inherent  and  insurmountable,  and 
it  inevitably  repels  from  interest  in  its  discussions 
many  modern  minds.  With  grave  reluctance  and 
often  with  agony  of  spirit,  they  surrender  their  he- 
reditary claim  to  discipleship  as  inconsistent  with 
the  habit  of  mind  in  which  they  are  irretrievably 
trained,  and  conclude  that  Christian  loyalty  is 
not  practicable  for  them.  The  Christian  life  is 
not,  after  all,  they  infer,  the  supreme  aim  of  the 
Christian  Church.  What  they  had  sought  in 
the  Christian  religion  was  not  so  much  a  cosmic 
drama  as  a  way  of  life.  What  led  them  to  Jesus 
Christ  was  not  so  much  the  mystery  of  his  origin 
and  destiny  as  his  words,  "Come  unto  me  all  ye 
that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  ye  shall  find 
rest  unto  your  souls."    What  they  wanted  was 


XnS 


2IO     THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

Power  and  Life;  and  no  doctrinal  system,  they 
conclude,  can  communicate  this  dynamic  morality. 
For  such  minds  Christian  teaching  must  either 
change  its  emphasis,  or  forfeit  its  supremacy. 
They  have  no  quarrel  with  the  creeds;  their 
minds  are  simply  turned  another  way.  First 
a  Christian  experience  and  then  a  Christian  the- 
ology to  explain  it ;  first  a  doing  of  the  will  and 
then  a  knowledge  of  the  doctrine,  —  that  is  the 
only  chronology  of  discipleship  which  is  likely  to 
be  verified  by  the  spiritual  history  of  a  modem  life. 
The  paradox  of  creed  and  character,  of  conformity 
and  consecration,  of  an  external  system  and  a 
spiritual  message,  which  makes  the  Christian  teach- 
ing so  hard  for  many  modern  minds  to  receive,  can 
be  solved  by  nothing  less  than  the  frank  recognition 
that  religion  is  life,  and  discipleship  obedience,  and 
the  creeds  an  effort  of  the  reason  to  trudge  with 
weary  steps  of  demonstration  along  the  way  which 
the  wings  of  the  will  have  traversed  in  their  un- 
hindered flight.  "Thy  faith  hath  saved  thee," 
said  Jesus  to  many  a  penitent  and  responsive  dis- 
ciple who,  as  an  American  preacher  has  lately  re- 
marked, "could  not  have  repeated  a  single  article 
of  the  Apostles'  Creed."  ^ 

What,  then,  must  happen  to  the  Christian  Church 
if  it  is  to  provide  an  xmobstructed  channel  for  the 
Christian  Hfe  ?  In  the  first  place,  its  demands  must 
be  simpHfied.    When  one  compares  the  teaching  of 

^  George  Hodges,  in  Harvard  College  Chapel,  May  i,  1914. 


CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH     211 

Jesus  with  the  practices  and  principles  of  organized 
Christianity,  the  contrast  is  not  only  striking,  but 
humiliating.  Few  Christian  communions  welcome 
discipleship  on  terms  which  Jesus  himself  found 
sufl&cient,  and  into  many,  if  he  added  nothing  to  the 
Gospel  record,  he  would  find  entrance  difficult  for 
himself.  It  was  once  said  by  an  American  theolo- 
gian that  no  two  forms  of  religious  symbolism  could 
be  more  remote  from  each  other  in  spirit  and  inten- 
tion than  the  Lord's  Supper  and  the  Celebration 
of  the  Mass.  A  similar  comment  might  be  made 
on  many  definitions  of  faith  and  conditions  of 
fellowship.  Jesus,  in  the  most  definite  announce- 
ment of  his  mission,  said,  "Not  every  one  that 
saith  unto  me,  Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter  the  King- 
dom of  heaven,  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  my 
Father  which  is  in  heaven"  ;  and,  again,  "Why  call 
ye  me.  Lord,  Lord,  and  do  not  the  things  which  I 
say";  and  still  again,  "Seek  first  the  Kingdom  of 
God  and  His  righteousness."  It  was  a  moral 
obedience  which  he  sought,  a  dedication  of  desire,  a 
loyalty  to  the  ideal  of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  What 
kinship  with  this  simplicity  is  to  be  found  in  the 
thirty-three  chapters  of  the  Westminster  Confes- 
sion, or  the  thirty-nine  Articles  of  Anglicanism,  or 
the  sixty-seven  Conclusions  of  Zwingli,  or  the 
fifty  and  more  pages  of  the  Lutheran  Formula  of 
Concord,  with  its  concluding  words,  "This  is 
the  faith,  doctrine,  and  confession  of  us  all,  con- 
cerning which  we  are  prepared  to  render  accoimt  at 
the  Last  Day." 


212     THE  CHRISTIAN  LITE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

Here  is  not  a  question  of  truth,  or  authority, 
or  scriptural  indorsement;  it  is  a  question  of 
emphasis,  of  dominant  note,  of  central  inten- 
tion. However  profoundly  these  historic  con- 
fessions may  express  the  nature  of  God  and  man, 
it  is  evident  that  they  are  set  in  a  different  key  from 
the  teaching  of  Jesus.  To  affirm  that  it  is  concern- 
ing these  matters  of  faith  and  confession  that  one 
must  be  prepared  to  give  an  account  at  the  Last 
Day  is  to  forget  that  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus  con- 
cerning that  Last  Day  when  "the  Son  of  man  shall 
come  in  his  glory,"  it  was  not  because  of  any 
conformity  to  faith,  doctrine,  or  confession,  but  be- 
cause one  had  given  meat  to  the  hungry,  clothed 
the  naked,  and  visited  the  prisoner,  that  the  wel- 
come was  given,  "Inasmuch  as  ye  have  done  it 
imto  one  of  the  least  of  these  my  brethren,  ye 
have  done  it  imto  me."  Here  is  a  change  of 
spiritual  climate,  a  simplification  of  discipleship. 
The  Christian  Ufe  becomes  the  test  of  orthodoxy, 
and  the  Christian  Church  the  instrument  and  wit- 
ness of  the  Christian  life.  To  set  a  declaration  of 
dogma  in  the  place  of  a  pledge  of  loyalty  is  to  hear 
once  more  the  poignant  protest  of  Jesus  himself, 
"They  bind  heavy  burdens  and  grievous  to  be 
borne,  and  lay  them  on  men's  shoulders" ;  and  the 
still  severer  irony  of  Peter,  "Why  tempt  ye  God, 
to  put  a  yoke  upon  the  neck  of  the  disciples,  which 
neither  our  fathers  nor  we  were  able  to  bear  ?  "  It 
was  a  wise  saying  of  Bishop  Hall  in  the  Seventeenth 


CHRISTIAN  LITE  AND  THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH    213 

Century  which  Lord  Morley  has  preserved,  —  that 
"the  most  useful  of  all  books  on  theology  would 
be  one  with  the  title  *  De  paucitate  credendorum ' 
—  of  the  fewness  of  the  things  which  a  man  must 
believe."  ^ 

The  transition  thus  indicated  may  perhaps  be 
more  accurately  described  in  the  language,  not  of 
theology,  but  of  psychology.  Throughout  the 
history  of  the  Christian  Church  the  prevailing 
emphasis  has  been  laid  either  on  the  reason  or  on 
the  emotions  as  the  organ  of  a  rehgious  life.  Either 
the  reason  must  be  convinced,  or  the  emotions  must 
be  stirred,  if  Christian  discipleship  is  to  be  attained. 
The  creeds  of  the  Church  have  addressed  the  reason 
and  invited  an  intellectual  approval ;  the  practice 
of  the  Church  has  appealed  to  the  feelings  and 
quickened  the  emotional  life  with  high  affections 
and  desires.  Each  of  these  paths  to  communion 
with  God  has  its  place  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus. 
His  thought  uttered  itself  in  great  generalizations 
which  might  have  given  him  a  name  among  the 
world's  philosophers  if  he  had  not  been  assigned  a 
more  exalted  place.  His  feelings  rose  into  spiritual 
insight  which  has  fortified,  through  all  the  Christian 
centuries,  the  mystic's  vision  and  faith.  When, 
however,  Jesus  makes  his  first  appeal  to  those  who 
would  be  his  disciples,  it  is  neither  to  their  reason 
nor  their  emotions  that  he  primarily  turns,  but  to 
their  wills.    "FoUow  me,"  he  says,  "Take  up  your 

*  "Oliver  Cromwell,"  1900,  p.  150. 


214     THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

cross  and  follow."  "He  that  willeth  to  do  the  will 
shall  know  of  the  doctrine."  The  specific  petitions 
of  the  Lord's  Prayer,  —  for  bread,  forgiveness,  and 
deliverance  from  evil,  —  are  postponed  until  the 
fundamental  desire,  to  do  God's  wiU  and  to  serve 
His  Kingdom,  is  expressed.  Not  theological  accu- 
racy nor  mystic  illumination,  but  moral  decision,  is 
his  first  demand.  "I  am  the  way,  the  truth,  and 
the  life"  —  first  the  way,  and  along  the  way  a 
better  knowledge  of  the  truth,  and  at  the  end  of  the 
way,  what  the  Book  of  Revelation  calls  the  Crown 
of  Life.  Here  is  no  conflict  between  creed  and 
character,  or  between  feeling  and  will.  A  mind  that 
thinks  must  have  a  theology,  even  though  its 
theology  be  destructive ;  a  heart  that  beats  must 
love  and  adore,  whether  the  object  of  its  affection 
be  human  or  Divine.  Neither  of  these  expressions 
of  religion,  however,  nor  both  of  them,  disclose  the 
original  source  of  loyalty,  decision,  and  obedience. 
The  preliminary  and  direct  approach  to  Christian 
discipleship  is  neither  through  theological  accuracy 
nor  mystical  communion,  but  through  the  dedica- 
tion of  the  will;  and  whatever  obscures  or  com- 
plicates that  elementary  decision  deters  from  dis- 
cipleship many  who  would  welcome  "the  simplicity 
that  is  toward  Christ." 

To  the  simplification  of  the  Christian  teaching 
must  be  added,  secondly,  its  socialization.  No 
sign  of  the  present  time  is  so  conspicuous  as  its 
summons  to  social  responsibility  and  social  action. 


CHRISTIAN  LIFE   AND  THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH     21$ 

It  is  the  age  of  the  Social  Question.  Never  in 
human  history  were  so  many  people,  learned  and 
ignorant,  employers  and  employed,  wise  and  other- 
wise, concerned  with  problems  of  social  adjustment 
and  with  tasks  of  social  service.  The  most  charac- 
teristic discovery  of  the  present  generation  is  not 
the  telephone,  or  the  automobile,  or  the  aeroplane, 
but  the  social  conscience ;  the  new  acceptance  of 
duty  as  beginning  in  social  obligation  and  ending 
in  social  redemption.  It  is  by  no  means  deter- 
mined, however,  what  part  in  this  vast  and  varied 
enterprise  the  Christian  Church  is  to  play.  That  it 
has  waked  to  the  consciousness  of  a  new  world  is 
evident.  Schemes  of  social  service,  conrniittees, 
charities,  and  conferences  are  to  be  foimd  in  the 
programme  of  each  communion  and  congregation ; 
but  this  extension  of  responsibility  is  still  frequently 
regarded  as  extraneous  to  the  proper  work  of  the 
Christian  Church,  a  Department  of  Foreign  Affairs 
to  be  distinguished  from  the  interior  tasks  of  ad- 
ministration or  inspiration.  "The  real  business  of 
the  Church,"  a  synod  cited  by  Professor  Rauschen- 
busch  has  afl&rmed,  "is  to  preach  the  Gospel. 
It  is  not  the  mission  of  the  Church  to  abolish  physi- 
cal misery  or  to  help  men  to  earthly  happiness."  * 
This  uncertainty  as  to  the  province  of  the  Church 
and  hesitancy  to  annex  further  territory  as  its  own, 
have  had  their  inevitable  effect.  The  social  move- 
ment of  the  present  time  has  in  large  part  proceeded 
^  "Christianizing  the  Social  Order,"  191 2,  p.  24. 


2l6     THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE   IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

as  though  the  Christian  Church  did  not  exist,  or 
were  either  a  neutral  or  a  hostile  power.  "  Society," 
an  English  scholar  has  said,  "has  absorbed  into  its 
tissue  a  large  measure  of  that  moral  idealism  of 
which  the  Church  once  seemed  the  solitary  repre- 
sentative. The  Church  has  stood  aloof  from  the 
world,  and  now  the  world  takes  revenge  by  main- 
taining the  position  assigned  to  her  and  stand- 
ing aloof  from  the  Church."  ^  The  more  pro- 
foundly one  is  moved  by  the  iniquities  of  industry 
and  the  sins  of  civilization,  the  more  bitterly  he 
is  likely  to  protest  against  this  wavering  attitude 
of  the  Church,  until  at  last  he  may  regard  it  as 
either  an  obstruction  or  an  enemy.  "My  asso- 
ciates," the  President  of  the  American  Federation 
of  Labor  has  stated,  "have  come  to  look  upon  the 
Church  and  the  ministry  as  the  apologists  and 
defenders  of  the  wrong  committed  against  the 
interests  of  the  people." 

Here,  then,  is  a  curious  situation.  The  motives 
and  ideals  which  have  been  most  characteristic  of 
the  Christian  life  are  appropriated  by  many  who 
refuse  to  accept  the  Christian  name.  Fraternity, 
social  justice,  cooperation,  sacrifice,  the  bearing  of 
others'  burdens,  —  the  very  words  which  are 
expressive  of  Christian  discipleship,  are  inscribed  on 
banners  of  new  schemes  and  dreams ;  and  organiza- 
tions of  philanthropy,  cooperative  industry,  trades- 
imionism,  and  sociaHsm  go  sailing  buoyantly  down 
^  L.  P.  Jacks,  Hibbert  Journal,  Oct.  1906,  p.  17. 


CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH     217 


the  river  of  the  age,  while  the  Christian  Church 
looks  on  from  the  bank  and  sees  its  own  insignia 
on  these  alien  flags.  In  such  a  situation  what  is 
meant  by  the  socialization  of  the  Christian  Church  ? 
The  new  expansion  of  meaning  now  given  to  the 
word  itself  is  instructive  here.  When  social  science 
speaks  of  a  "socialized"  charity-worker,  or  a 
"socialized"  judge,  or  a  "socialized"  scheme  of 
reform,  it  does  not  merely  mean  that  these  are 
agents  of  social  service.  It  means  that  their  hori- 
zon is  broader  than  their  immediate  tasks,  that  they 
look  before  and  after,  to  causes  and  consequences, 
to  the  community  as  well  as  to  the  case,  to  the 
concomitant  circumstances  and  the  general  good. 
They  are  not  technical  and  specialized  in  their  pur- 
pose, but  comprehensive  and  "socialized."  They 
deal,  so  far  as  they  may,  with  the  whole  of  life,  not 
with  a  fragment ;  with  the  organism  of  society  rather 
than  with  the  isolated  atom. 

It  must  be  the  same  with  a  socialized  Church. 
It  is  a  Church  which  comprehends  within  its 
proper  sphere,  not  worship,  clergy,  doctrine, 
and  charity  alone,  but  the  whole  troubled  world 
of  modern  life,  its  conflicts  of  classes,  its  dis- 
sensions of  industry,  its  problems  of  politics,  its 
sins  of  property.  It  accepts  the  Pauline  teach- 
ing, "All  things  are  yours";  not  the  sectarian 
interests  of  Paul  and  ApoUos  and  Cephas  alone, 
but  the  larger  problems  of  the  world  and  life  and 
death  and  things  present  and  things  to  come.     It 


2l8     THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE   IN  THE  MODERN   WORLD 

remembers  the  great  word  of  Wesley:  "There 
is  no  such  thing  as  a  solitary  Christian" ;  and  sets 
itself,  not  to  save  the  individual  out  of  a  perishing 
world,  like  a  passenger  rescued  from  a  sinking 
ship,  but  to  the  more  heroic  task  of  rallying  both 
passengers  and  crew  to  bring  the  world  itself,  like  a 
battered  but  still  seaworthy  vessel,  safe  to  port. 
"The  Church,"  Phillips  Brooks  has  finely  said,  "is 
but  the  type  of  the  complete  humanity,  —  elect, 
not  that  it  may  be  saved  out  of  the  world,  but  that 
the  world  may  be  saved  by  its  witness  and  specimen 
of  what  the  whole  world  is  in  its  idea."  ^ 

Anything  less  than  this  is  not  only  an  unsocial- 
ized,  but  an  ineffective  Church.  Its  power  is  ex- 
hausted in  turning  its  own  wheels.  Its  life  is 
atrophied  because  it  is  not  communicated.  When 
the  apostle  Paul  declares  himself  a  "minister  and 
witness,"  he  uses  a  "socialized"  word.  What  the 
translation  calls  a  "minister"  is,  in  the  Greek,  a 
rower  in  a  galley,  one  of  the  crew,  who  puts  his  back 
into  his  work  and  keeps  stroke  with  the  rest.^  The 
Church,  if  one  may  render  the  Pauline  figure  into 
a  modern  equivalent,  is  not  a  harbor  where  its 
"ministers  and  witnesses"  comfort  shipwrecked 
souls,  but  a  Hfe-saving  station,  where  a  crew  is 
trained  to  save  those  who  cannot  find  a  harbor, 
and  to  take  the  risks  of  brave  men  who  launch  out 

^  "The  Influence  of  Jesus,"  1879,  p.  129. 
*Acts  XXVI,  16;    iiirrjpiTijs,  =  "  a.n  under-rower,  under-sea- 
man;  distinguished  fronu'oOrat  and  ^P^Tot."     (Liddell  and  Scott.) 


CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH    219 

into  the  deep.  That  is  the  task  of  the  Christian 
minister  to-day.  He  is  not  an  official  giving  orders 
from  the  shore,  or  a  compassionate  landsman 
surveying  the  scene.  "He  forgets,"  as  a  great 
English  teacher  has  said,  "the  outworn  petition  of 
the  Collect,  'that  we  being  freed  from  the  fear  of 
our  enemies  may  pass  our  time  in  rest  and  quiet- 
ness.' "  ^  He  does  not  ask  for  rest  and  quietness,  but 
for  a  chance  to  save.  He  has  no  time  for  the  fear 
of  his  enemies  because  he  is  busy  at  his  oar.  He  is 
one  of  a  crew,  trained  to  pull  against  wind  and  tide ; 
enlisted  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minister 
and  to  give  his  hfe  a  ransom  for  many.  When 
Jesus  in  his  own  town  wished  to  announce  his 
message,  he  opened  the  ancient  Scriptures  and 
apphed  the  words  of  Isaiah  to  himself.  The  Spirit 
of  the  Lord  was  on  him,  he  said,  anointing  him  to 
heal,  to  deliver,  to  give  sight,  to  set  at  liberty,  as 
weU  as  to  preach.  It  was  a  socialized  faith.  His 
field,  he  said,  was  the  world.  The  world,  as  the  sig- 
nificant title  of  a  notable  English  book  announced, 
is  the  subject  of  redemption. ^  The  socialization  of 
the  Church  is  not  alone  its  adaptation  to  the  present 
age ;  it  is  its  restoration  to  the  purpose  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

At  this  point,  also,  it  must  be  added,  is  the  open 

ij.  R.  Seeley,  "The  Church  as  a  Teacher  of  Morality,"  in 
"Roman  Imperialism  and  Other  Essays,"  1871,  p.  269. 

2W.  H.  Fremantle,  "The  World  as  the  Subject  of  Redemp- 
tion," 1885. 


220     THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

door  to  that  great  consummation  of  Christian  unity, 
which  is  now  as  never  before  in  history  inviting  the 
imagination  and  desire  of  the  Christian  world. 
How  eagerly  and  prayerfully  the  various  commu- 
nions are  considering  what  each  may  surrender,  and 
what  each  must  maintain  as  essential  to  a  Chris- 
tian Church;  and  how  impenetrable  seems  the 
wall  of  division  which  confronts  each  approach 
as  it  reaches  the  opposing  claim  of  Immersion  or 
Sacraments  or  Orders  !  Intelligent  heathen  listen 
with  amusement  or  contempt  while  devoted  mis- 
sionaries preach  a  sectarian  Gospel  or  commend 
a  divided  Church.  Intellectual  agreement  grows 
less  probable  as  intellectual  honesty  increases  and 
critical  learning  dissects;  until  at  last  the  pre- 
posterous position  is  reached  where  fellow-mission- 
aries may  not,  without  serious  protest,  take  together 
that  bread  and  wine  of  which  their  common  Master 
said,  "This  do  in  remembrance  of  me."  Yet 
all  the  while  the  real  unity  of  the  Christian  Church 
is  not  only  accessible,  but  at  many  points  attained. 
It  is  one  of  the  most  curious  aspects  of  the  time 
that  Christians  who  cannot  worship  together  are 
glad  to  work  together,  and  though,  as  has  been 
finely  said,  they  "refuse  to  partake  under  the  same 
roof  of  the  bread  and  wine,  do  not  hesitate  to  unite 
in  taking  the  basin  and  towel  and  in  imitating  the 
Saviour  in  his  acts  of  lowly  service."^  What 
is  the  meaning  of  this  happy  association  in  work 
^  C.  E.  Jefferson,  Constructive  Review,  Apr.  1914,  p.  6$  &. 


CHRISTIAN   LIFE  AND  THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH    221 

of  minds  dissociated  in  thought?  It  means  that, 
while  the  Church  is  ahnost  unaware  of  the  fact, 
the  only  practicable  unity,  a  unity  of  Life  and 
Power,  has  at  such  points  actually  arrived.  It 
comes  not  through  discussion  but  through  de- 
votion ;  not  by  the  agreement  of  Councils  but 
** without  observation";  not  by  a  concurrent 
consent  to  doctrine,  but  by  a  cooperative  conse- 
cration to  do  the  will;  not  by  the  segregation  of 
the  sects  but  by  the  socialization  of  the  Church. 
Wherever  Christians  have  great  things  to  do 
together  there  the  problem  of  unity  has  been,  not 
so  much  solved,  as  left  behind.  That  is  the  lesson 
which  stay-at-home  Christians  are  learning  from 
the  new  spirit  in  Foreign  Missions.  If  the  mighty 
task  of  Christianizing  the  Orient  is  to  be  fulfilled 
many  differences  of  form  and  method  which  may 
seem  vital  to  the  Churches  at  home  must  be,  not 
denied,  but  forgotten,  in  the  supreme  desire  to 
carry  the  Master's  message,  "I  am  come  that 
these  may  have  my  life  and  may  have  it  abun- 
dantly." Christian  unity,  in  fact,  seems  more 
likely  to  be  imported  from  Foreign  Missions  to 
the  home-Churches  than  to  be  discovered  in  the 
leisure  of  ecclesiastical  debates;  unless  indeed 
the  home-Churches  wake  to  the  momentous  dis- 
covery that  a  similar  missionary  opportunity  is 
knocking  at  their  own  doors. 

There  remains  one  further  question.    How  is  this 
socialization  of  the  Christian  Church  to  be  at- 


222     THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

tained  ?  Does  socialization  involve  secularization  ? 
Is  worship  to  be  supplanted  by  work,  theology  by 
sociology,  communion  with  God  by  the  service  of 
man?  On  the  contrary,  it  is  precisely  at  this 
point  that  the  highest  function  of  the  Christian 
Church  is  disclosed.  Its  mission  is  not  that  of 
secularization,  but  that  of  spiritualization.  It 
looks  on  all  this  perplexing  and  tragic  scene  of  the 
modern  world,  not  as  from  afar,  with  a  sense  of 
detachment  and  immunity,  not  as  from  without,  as 
one  who  watches  a  great  machine  in  its  resistless 
revolutions,  but  as  from  within,  as  one  who  stands 
at  the  centre  of  a  hving  organism  and  sees  the  un- 
folding of  its  vital  growth.  What  is  the  most 
immediate  and  insidious  peril  which  threatens  the 
social  movement  of  the  present  age?  It  is  the 
peril  of  a  practical  materialism,  the  interpretation 
of  this  vast  and  varied  enterprise  of  responsibility, 
^  fraternity,  and  hope,  as  an  external,  economic,  or 
)oUtical  transition,  instead  of  a  human,  ethical,  and 
Spiritual  adventure.  The  philosophy  of  revolution 
'is  in  part  to  blame  for  this  misinterpretation.  In 
its  desire  to  picture  social  change  as  inevitable  it 
has  described  that  change  as  automatic  and 
mechanical.  Revolutionize  the  methods  of  pro- 
duction and  exchange,  it  has  taught,  and  the  ideals 
of  the  human  heart  will  be  transformed.  The  law 
of  economic  determinism  governs  not  only  the 
industrial,  but  also  the  spiritual  Ufe.  We  are  what 
our  conditions  of  labor  compel  us  to  be.    "The 


CHRISTIAN  LIFE  AND  THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH     223 


mode  of  production  in  material  life,"  said  Marx  in 
one  of  his  most  famous  aphorisms,  "determines 
the  general  character  of  the  social,  political,  and 
spiritual  processes  of  life."  ^ 

The  same  materialism  in  a  less  reasoned  form 
degrades  and  dehumanizes  great  areas  of  the 
modern  world.  Prosperous  people,  reckoning  their 
happiness  in  terms  of  income  and  expenditure; 
employers,  regarding  their  employees  as  cogs  in 
a  great  machine ;  wage-earners,  subdued  to  that 
they  work  in  like  the  dyer's  hand,  with  no 
horizon  beyond  the  closing  hour  and  the  pay- 
envelope;  poor  people  with  no  ideal  but  the 
rent  and  no  solace  but  the  saloon,  —  what  a  mock- 
ery is  here  of  a  world  of  souls,  a  spiritual  brother- 
hood, an  answer  to  the  prayer,  "Thy  Kingdom 
come  ...  in  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven"  !  Into  this 
world  of  materialized  aims  enters  the  Christian  life, 
utilizing  as  its  agent  a  socialized  Church  to  carry 
the  Gospel  of  spiritualization.  It  looks  within  the 
facts  of  social  disorder  for  their  spiritual  causes. 
It  converts  the  relief  of  the  poor  into  a  spiritual 
transaction,  conveying  not  only  food  and  lodging, 
but  courage,  self-control,  and  hope.  It  Ufts  the 
relations  of  industry  from  the  level  of  a  wage-system 
to  the  higher  plane  of  a  cooperative  system.  It  res- 
cues the  social  world  from  its  slough  of  fleshly  and 
commercial  aims  and  sets  it  on  the  rock  of  moral 
idealism. 

*  "Critique  of  Political  Economy,"  tr.  Stone,  1894,  p.  11. 


224     THE   CHRISTIAN  LIFE   IN  THE   MODERN   WORLD 

A  great  teacher  of  the  modem  world  has  lately 
said:  "The  corner-stone  of  all  philosophical 
thought,  and  the  axiom  of  axioms,  is  the  fact  of 
a  world-embracing  spiritual  life."  "With  the 
attainment  of  independence  by  the  spiritual  life 
there  emerges  a  distinctive  kind  of  being."  ^  This 
distinctive  kind  of  being,  this  independence  of  the 
spiritual  life,  is  the  comer-stone  which  supports  a 
spiritualized  faith.  Rehgion  is  not  one  more  ma- 
chine like  the  mechanism  of  business  or  politics, 
^ut  a  power  which  may  work  through  all  the 
varied  forms  of  social  machinery  for  spiritual  ends. 
To  a  generation  hungry  for  more  money,  more 
luxury,  more  possessions,  it  says,  "Man  shall 
Inot  live  by  bread  alone,  but  by  every  word  that 
Iproceedeth  out  of  the  mouth  of  God."  To  a  com- 
/  mercialized  generation,  balancing  its  profit  and  loss, 
it  says,  "What  is  a  man  profited  if  he  shall  gain 
the  whole  world  and  lose  his  own  soul  ?  "  To  those 
who  have  confused  religion  with  poKtics,  and  fancy 
that  the  Church  of  Christ  is  one  more  external 
Empire  with  its  titles  and  laws,  its  says:  "The 
Kingdom  of  God  cometh  not  with  observation.  .  .  . 
The  Kingdom  of  God  is  within  you."  To  set  Hfe 
in  true  perspective,  to  make  the  great  things  great 
and  the  small  things  small,  to  change  a  world  of 
contending  animals  into  a  world  of  cooperating 
souls,  —  that  is  the  mission  of  a  spiritualized 
Church,  of  which  all  other  tasks  of  the  Church  are 
imperfect  and  preparatory  symbols. 

lEucken,  "Life's  Basis  and  Ideal,"  tr.  1911,  p.  160. 


CHRISTIAN   LIFE  AND  THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH    225 

Is  the  Christian  life,  then,  practicable  in  the 
Christian  Church?  That  must  depend  in  large 
degree  on  the  Church  itself.  It  can  never  be  an 
easy  thing  to  live  a  simph'fied,  a  sociaHzed,  and  a 
spiritualized  life ;  but  it  is  made  much  more  diffi- 
cult in  the  atmosphere  of  an  intellectualized,  an 
individualized  or  an  externalized  Church.  The 
dogmatic,  provincial,  or  arrogant  Church  may  gain 
the  whole  world,  but  may  forfeit  its  own  soul.  The 
Church  Militant  may  be  so  concerned  with  fighting 
other  churches,  or  with  fighting  for  its  own  existence, 
that  those  who  want  to  fight  the  real  sins  of  modem 
life  may  enlist  under  other  banners.  The  hymnody 
of  the  Church  is  more  apt  to  call  worshippers  to 
arms  than  to  tell  them  what  to  do.  The  Christian 
life  has  a  right  to  ask  of  the  Christian  Church 
specific  marching  orders. 

Nor  is  this  all.  As  one  looks  back  over  the  series 
of  problems  which  have  been  briefly  considered,  — 
the  hfe  of  the  family,  the  work  of  the  industrial 
world,  the  making  and  spending  of  money,  and  the 
perplexities  of  politics,  — what  is  the  redemptive 
force  which  each  in  turn  has  seemed  to  need  ?  It  is 
a  revival  of  idealism,  a  Life  and  Power  of  the  spirit, 
an  association  with  souls  who  have  found  their 
lives  in  God.  To  be  surrounded  by  this  cloud  of 
witnesses  is  to  run  with  a  better  patience  one's  own 
race.  The  affairs  of  home,  and  business,  and  poli- 
tics need  the  reenforcement  of  this  collective 
righteousness.     Precisely  this  organization  of  the 


226     THE   CHRISTIAN   LIFE   IN  THE  MODERN  WORLD 

spiritual  life  is  what  the  Christian  Church  may  offer. 
It  is  a  creation,  not  of  dogmas  or  clergy  or  Councils, 
but  of  the  personality  of  Jesus  Christ  wrought  into 
the  spiritual  experience  of  the  world.  Men  may 
build  on  this  foundation,  gold  or  silver,  hay  or 
stubble,  but  other  foundation  can  no  man  lay  than 
that  is  laid,  which  is  Jesus  Christ.  The  Christian 
Church  is  a  community  of  souls  touched  by  the 
contagion  of  the  Christian  ideal,  a  "  spiritual  house  " 
built  up  of  "lively  stones."  "The  Church,"  a 
German  scholar  has  lately  said,  "  is  essentially  a 
school  for  sinners  who  would  become  saints.  .  .  . 
Even  if,  as  there  seems  little  reason  to  believe, 
Jesus  did  in  any  way  determine  the  organization 
and  ceremonial  of  a  Church,  to  take  such 
external  forms  as  anything  more  than  means  to 
the  attainment  of  his  spiritual  aims  is  in  contra- 
diction to  the  impression  given  by  his  whole  life 
and  teaching."  ^ 

What  might  not  happen,  then,  in  this  troubled 
world  of  social  problems  and  personal  decisions, 
if  there  could  be  applied  to  it  the  Life  and 
Power  of  this  association  of  the  spirit ;  a  Church 
which  is  not  an  end  in  itself,  but  the  agent  of  a 
larger  redemption;  not  sacred  for  its  own  sake, 
but  sanctifying  itself  for  others'  sakes !  The 
province  of  the  Christian  Church,  thus  defined, 
becomes  larger  than  many  of  its  most  zealous 
defenders  have  conceived.  To  it  is  given  the 
^  Weind  and  Widgery,  op.  cit,  p.  440. 


CHRISTIAN  LITE  AND  THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH     227 

supreme  privilege  of  interpreting  to  the  world  its 
own  meaning,  and  of  saving  the  soul  of  the  world. 
To  accept  this  high  privilege,  and  to  subordinate 
to  it  all  other  ends,  is  the  preHminary  task  of  modern 
Christianity.  "Cleanse  first,"  said  Jesus,  "that 
which  is  within  the  cup  and  platter,  that  the  out- 
side of  them  may  be  clean  also."  It  is  a  stem 
summons  to  the  Christian  Church.  A  cleaner  Ufe 
in  the  family,  a  more  fraternal  world  of  business, 
the  purifying  of  money-making,  and  the  moralizing 
of  politics,  —  all  these  are  waiting  for  that  antece- 
dent cleansing  of  the  Church,  which  may  make  it 
an  effective  instrument  of  the  great  salvation. 
A  simpHfied,  socialized,  and  spiritualized  Church 
is  but  another  name  for  the  Christian  life,  or- 
ganized to  serve  the  modem  world.  The  majestic 
promise  of  Jesus  to  his  disciples  is  not  that  of  an 
institutional  maintenance,  but  of  a  spiritual  con- 
tinuity, —  not  that  of  a  scheme,  but  that  of  a 
Saviour:  "Lo,  I  am  with  you  alway,  even  unto 
the  end  of  the  world." 


INDEX 


Adams,  E.  D.,  176 
Alexander  the  Great,  164 
Alva,  Duke  of,  176 
America.    See  under  State 
American  social  life,  50 
Apostles'  Creed,  199 
Aristocracy,  spiritual,  173 
Aristotle's  State,  168 
Arnold,  Matthew,  25 
Asceticism.    See  Quietism 
Athanasian  Creed,  200 
Augsburg  Confession,  201 
Augustine,  St.,  164,  205 

B 

Bacon,  Francis,  116,  152 

Balkan  States,  163 

Barbour,  168,  173 

Bamett,  Canon,  146 

Beaconsfield,  Lord,  165 

Bebel,  A.,  8,  42,  80 

Benevolence.    See  Giving 

Bernard,  St.,  2  note 

Bismarck,  Otto  von,  163,  165 

Bosnia  and  Herzegovina,  163 

Bourgeoisie,  107 

Bradley,  F.  H.,  6 

Bridgman,  Laura,  191 

Bright,  John,  15,  165 

Brooks,  Phillips,  152,  218 

Browne,  Sir  Thomas,  150 

Browning,  Robert,  91 

Burdens,  158 

Burke,  Edmimd,  92 

Business:  Christian  life  and,  76; 
encouraging  aspect,  90 ;  essential 
character,  100;   fratemalism  in, 


102 ;  honor  and  credit,  97 ;  Jesus' 
teaching,  81,  87;  modem,  criti- 
cisms on,  77 ;  need  of  reform, 
loi ;  real  evil  in,  81 ;  selfishness 
of,  96 ;  service  to  the  world,  91 ; 
true  estimate,  89 


Cabot,  R.  C,  94 

Caird,  Edward,  30 

Cairns,  D.  C,  22 

Capital  and  labor,  79 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  176 

Cavour,  Count,  165,  175,  177 

Cecil,  Hugh,  170 

Chamberlain,  Houston,  44 

Channing,  W.  E.,  187,  190 

Character  and  environment,  83 

Charity,  154.     See  also  Giving 

Chesterton,  G.  K.,  58 

Children,  52 ;  care  and  training 
of,  61 ;  individuahty,  71 ;  in- 
stitutions for,  69;  Jesus  and, 
46 ;  problem  of  having,  60 

China,  164 

Christ,  eternal,  13;  imitation  of, 
14.     See  also  Jesus 

Christianity:  as  interim  gospel, 
II,  24;  Epistles  as  contain- 
ing, 13;  fallacy  in  present-day 
criticisms,  23;  modem  conduct 
and,  IS ;  present-day  criticisms, 
2 ;  reaction  from,  19 ;  senti- 
mental approval  of,  18;  true 
nature,  30,  35 

Christian  life.  See  Family,  Busi- 
ness, State,  Church 

Christians,  inconsistent  conduct,  15 

Christology,  205 


229 


230 


INDEX 


Church:  ancient  symbols  and 
modem  thought,  208 ;  Christian 
life  in  the,  195 ;  creed  and 
dogma  as  tests  of  discipleship, 
199 ;  creeds  and  life,  209 ; 
hypocrisies,  197,  198 ;  intel- 
lectualization  of  its  discipleship, 
199 ;  motives  and  ideals  ap- 
propriated by  other  bodies, 
216;  paradox  of  intellectual 
discipleship,  202 ;  practicability 
of  Christian  life  in,  225;  real 
mission,  215 ;  revived  ideaUsm, 
225;  secularization  and  spirit- 
ualization,  222;  simple  teaching 
needed,  210;  socialization  of 
teaching,  214;  state  and,  191; 
unity,  204,  220;  weakness 
within,  196;  worid  and,  216 

Church  of  England,  controversy 
in,  208 

Civil  War  in  the  United  States,  176 

Commercialism,  178,  181,  182,  184 

Commonwealth:  Christian,  171; 
MUton's  and  Cromwell's,  169. 
See  also  State 

Communion,  220 

Communism,  112 

CompeUtion,  82 

Conduct.    See  Christianity 

Constantine,  175 

Constructive  Review,  207 

Creeds,  199;  explanations  of 
phrases  in,  207 

Cretans,  i 

Crispi,  Francesco,  163,  165 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  169 

Cuba,  183 

Cunningham,  Wm.,  95,  163 


Dante,  123,  168 

Democracy,  177,  192;  commer- 
cial, 180;   spiritual,  174 

De  Quincey,  Thomas,  126 

Dickinson,  Lowes,  7 

Diplomacy,  international,  163,  193 
note 


Discipleship,  intellectualization  of, 
199;     Jesus'     simple     require- 
ment, 211 ;  paradox  of  intellect- 
ual, 202 
Divorce,  40,  50,  55,  61 
Dogma,  199.    See  also  Creeds 


"Ecce   Homo."    See   Seeley,    Sir 

J.  R. 
Economics,  Christian,  86 
Education.    See  Schools,  Children 
Elective  system,  72 
Emerson,  R.  W.,  192 
England,  176 
Enghsh  public  school,  67 
Environment  and  character,  83 
Erasmus,  190 
Eschatology,  11,  23 
Eucken,  R.  C,  7,  31,  177,  224 
Eugenics,  53  J 

Europe,  peace  of,  186,  193 
European  war,  193  note 


Falstafif,  187 

Family:  as  a  school  of  character, 
57;  Church  teaching,  47;  con- 
tinuity and  perpetuity,  S4; 
instability,  40;  Jesus'  philos- 
ophy of,  70;  Jesus'  teaching, 
44,  54;  normal  American,  73; 
physical  conditions,  54;  prac- 
ticabiUty,  42 ;  Roman  unity,  43 

Fichte,  J.  G.,  176 

Figgis,  J.  N.,  9 

Formula  of  Concord,  2ii 

Forsyth,  D.  T.,  12 

Fox,  George,  202 

Fremantle,  W.  H.,  219 

Fullerton,  W.  M.,  166,  177 


Garibaldi,  Giuseppe,  176 
Garrod,  H.  W.,  6,  12,  14 
Giving:    education  of   the  giver, 
154;     emotional    and    rational. 


INDEX 


231 


156;    individual   and   personal, 

152;      Jesus'      teaching,      149; 

laws  and  limits,  147;    spiritual- 

ization,  157 
Gloster,  187 
Golden  Rule,  192 
Gore,  C,  208 
Gospels:     epistles   and,    13.     See 

also  Christianity 
Greek  State,  basis  of,  43 

H 

Hall,  Bishop,  212 

Hamack,  Adolf,  17,  24,  28 

Heroism,  fields  for,  189 

Herron,  G.  D.,  27,  38,  77,  78 

Herter,  C.  S.,  66 

Hodges,  George,  210 

Holland,  H.  S.,  33 

Home,    45 ;     religious    influence, 

62.     See  also  Family 
Honesty,  133 
Hort,  F.  J.  A.,  33 
Howe,  S.  G.,  190 
Hiunanization  of  business,  125 
Huxley,  T.  H.,  21 


Idealism :  American  beginnings, 
182;  education  of,  185;  need  of 
a  revival  of,  225 ;  political,  169 

Ignatius,  St.,  199 

Immaculate  conception,  48 

Individuality,  71 

Industry.    See  Business 

Inge,  W.  R.,  14 

Initiative,  183 

Institutions  for  children,  69,  154 

Intellectualization  of  Christian  dis- 
cipleship,  199 

Investments,  121 

Italy,  17s 


Jacks,  L.  P.,  216 
James,  Wm.,  189 


Japan,  classes  in,  99 

Jefiferson,  C.  E.,  220 

Jesus:  homelessness  of,  45;  in- 
consistencies, 29;  nature  of, 
204;  not  a  reformer,  27;  per- 
sonal relation,  35;  purpose, 
31;  social  message,  86;  Virgin 
birth,  48 

Jesus  and  Christ,  13 

Joseph  and  Mary,  48 

Jowett,  Benj.,  167,  168 


Kingdom  of  God,  171,  224 


Labor:  Leo  XIII  on,  85.  See  also 
Business 

Last  Day,  212 

Law,  Wm.,  143 

Lawrence  (Mass.)  strike,  loi 

Lecky,  W.  E.  H.,  150 

Leo  Xm,  8s 

Lessing,  G.  E.,  21 

Liberty,  185 

Life,  32 

Lightfoot,  J.  B.,  199 

Literalism,  23,  27 

Literature,  religious  use  for  chil- 
dren, 63 

Lloyd,  13 

Love,  so,  60,  156,  192 

Lowell,  J.  R.,  21 

Luxury.    See  Spending 

M 

Macaulay,  T.  B.,  185 
Marcus  Aurelius,  103 
Marriage,  49,  si ;  incompatibility, 
58;  unity,  58.     See  also  Family 
Martineau,  James,  31 
Marx,  Karl,  7,  107,  223 
Matthieu,  J.,  8 
Mazzini,  Giuseppe,  176 
Mexico,  183 
Middle  class,  108 


232 


INDEX 


Militarism,  i86,  189,  194 

Mill,  J.  S.,  35,  139 

Milton,  John,  34,  117,  164,  169, 
188 

Minister,  the  Christian,  218 

Missions,  foreign,  221 

Mitchell,  W.  C,  140 

Modena,  165 

Money  and  money-making,  106; 
American  conditions,  109 ; 
American  success,  180;  autom- 
atism in  industry,  126;  Chris- 
tian life  and,  no;  deceitfulness 
of  riches,  117;  hopeful  indica- 
tions, 132;  humanization  of 
business,  125;  Jesus'  teaching, 
112;  Jesus'  teaching  of  fra- 
ternity, 128;  justification  of 
owning,  116;  middle  class, 
108;  risks  of  possession,  115; 
stewardship,  116;  utilization, 
119.     See  also  Giving,  Spending 

Moravians,  182 

More,  Sir  Thomas,  19 

Morley,  John,  169,  175,  177,  213 

Muirhead,  J.  F.,  184 

Municipal  government,  162 

Munsterberg,  Hugo,  183 

N 

Napoleon,  176 
Nation,  The  (N.  Y.),  133 
Nicene  Creed,  201 
Nietzsche,  F.  W.,  7 
Nitti,  F.  S.,  27 

O 

Oliphant,  Lawrence,  19 
.  Ownership.    See  Stewardship 


Paganism,  modem,  20 
Panama  Canal,  166,  184 
Parenthood,  delegated,  66 
Paul:   as  founder  of  Christianity, 
13;  character  of  his  letters,  33 


Peabody,  F.  G.,  86,  114 

Peace.    See  War  and  Peace 

Pearson,  Karl,  42 

Peile,  J.  H.  F.,  206 

Personality,  35,  71 

Philippines,  183 

Phillips,  Wendell,  176 

Pietists,  182 

Placing-out  system,  68,  15 

Plato,  173 

Plato's  Republic,  167,  171,  173 

Politics:  American,  162;  Euro- 
pean, 193 ;  forces  that  domi- 
nate, 177;  Golden  Rule  in,  174; 
machinery  and  dynamic,  179; 
paradox  of,  179;  paradox  of 
American,  183.     See   also  State 

Poverty.  See  Rich  and  Poor, 
Money  and  Money-making, 
Wealth 

Power,  32 

President  of  the  United  States, 
powers,  166 

Proletariat,  107 

Property.  See  Money  and  Money- 
making,  Wealth 

Proudhon,  P.  J.,  112 

Prussia,  176 

Public  opinion,  177 

Public  spirit,  162 

Puritans,  182 


Quietism,  16,  25 


Race-suicide,  52 
Rauschenbusch,  W.,  2,  78,  215 
Reforms,  place  of,  84 
Republic,  Plato's,  167,  171,  173 
Retreat,  17,  25 
Ricardo,  David,  126 
Rich  and  Poor,  107 
Riis,  Jacob,  69 
Roland,  Madame,  185 
Roman  State,  basis  of,  43 
Ross,  G.  A.  J.,  200 


INDEX 


233 


Royce,  Josiah,  10 

Ruskin,  John,  117,  127,  181 

Russell,  Lord  John,  165 


Sanday,  W.,  208 

Sceva,  14 

Schleiermacher,  F.  E.  D.,  21,  203 

SchmoUer,  181 

Schools  for  children,  65 

Schweitzer,  25 

Seeley,  Sir  J.  R.,  68,  119,  171,  219 

Seneca,  123,  148 

Service,  law  of,  90 

Simkhovitch,  V.  G.,  109 

Simplicity,  144,  214 

Simplicity  of  Jesus'  requirement 
for  discipleship,  211 

Social  conscience,  limited  range,  161 

"Social  ethos,"  16 

Socialism:  fallacy  in  its  pro- 
gramme, 82 ;  family  and,  41 ; 
Jesus  and,  28,  114 

Social  questions,  215 

Social  service,  93,  215.  See  also 
Service 

"Socialization,"  217 

Spain,  183 

Spencer,  Herbert,  150 

Spending,  135;  American  ex- 
travagance, 136;  fallacy  of 
argument  in  defence  of  luxuries, 
138;  Jesus'  teaching,  142; 
regulation  and  system,  141 ; 
the  test  of  service,  145 

State:  American  conditions,  179; 
American  restlessness,  180;  Aris- 
totle's conception,  168;  Chris- 
tian life  and,  161 ;  Church  and, 
191 ;  duty  of  educating  ideal- 
ism, 185;  foundation,  178; 
Jesus'  Gospel  of  the  Kingdom, 
171;  Jesus'  teaching,  170;  Mil- 
ton's, 169;  moral  seriousness 
of  America,  182;  Plato's  Re- 
public, 167,  173;  Plato's  Re- 
public and  the  Gospel,  172; 
political  idealism,  169,  175,  193 


Stewardship,  116,  140 
Stryker,  M.,  124 
Sumner,  W.  G.,  16 
Survey,  The,  79 
Syndicalism,  79 


Taussig,  F.  W.,  139 

Temple,  W.,  96 

Thayer,  W.  R.,  165 

Thirty-nine  Articles  of  the  Church 

of  England,  201 
Thrift,  137 

Titus,  Epistle  to,  i,  2  note 
Tolstoi,  Leo,  4,  16,  25,  115,  166 
Trade.    See  Busiuess 
Trent,  Council  of,  34,  201 
Trevelyan,  G.  M.,  15,  165,  176 
Tripoli,  164 
Troeltsch,  E.,  87 
Turkey,  163 
Tuscany,  165 

U 

Underbill,  E.,  33 

United     States:      idealism,     183, 

194.     See  also  Politics,  State 
Unity.    See  Church  Unity 
Utilization.    See  Stewardship 


Venereal  diseases,  30 
Virgin  birth,  48 

W 

Wage  system,  102 

War  and  peace,  186,  193 

Wealth:  an  instrument  of  ideal- 
ism, 178.  See  also  Giving, 
Money  and  Money-making,  Rich 
and  Poor,  Spending 

Weinel,  Heinrich,  25,  226 

Wells,  H.  G.,  41 

Wesley,  Charles,  93 

Wesley,  John,  218 


234 


INDEX 


Westcott,  B.  F.,  97 
Westminster  Confession,  soi 
White,  A.  D.,  162 
White,  Bouck,  77,  113 
Whittier,  J.  G.,  191 
Widgery,  A.  G.,  25,  226 
WiUoughby,  W.  W.,  192 
Wilson,  Woodrow,  192 
Woman,  43.    See  also  Family 


Working   classes,    defection   from 

Christianity,  20 
World  Conference   on  Faith  and 

Order,  204 


Zimmem,  A.  £.,  181 


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